Psychological warfare between North and South Korea heats up

THE psychological warfare between North and South Korea is escalating again, with both sides upping the ante on the mind games.

In this Oct. 10, 2015, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes at a parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. It’s a single image released by an enormous propaganda apparatus, showing a note handwritten by a dictator. And it contains a telling clue to the mindset behind what has become the biggest story in Asia: North Korea’s surprise and disputed claim to have tested its first hydrogen bomb. The Dec. 15, 2015, note from leader Kim Jong Un calls for a New Year marked by the “stunning sound of the explosion of our country’s first hydrogen bomb.” (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

THEY have engaged in tit-for-tat tactics for decades, sometimes pushing the boundaries to the brink of war.

But what happens next in this psychological battle in the Korean peninsula depends largely on North and South Korea’s neighbours, and the US.

After claims two weeks ago by the communist state that it carried out its fourth nuclear test in the region, South Korea has been blasting K-pop and propaganda messages via its wall of loudspeakers erected along the heavily militarised border.

These messages, which can travel up to 24km, proclaimed the nuclear test was making North Korea more “isolated and turning it into the land of death”. the blasts also mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s taste for luxury goods, Vice Newsreported.

“Clothes for Kim Jong-un and [his wife] Ri Sol-ju cost tens of thousands dollars each and her purse is worth thousands of dollars too,” a male announcer reportedly says.

In response, Pyongyang tried to blanket Seoul with a million leaflets, released by helium balloons, calling South Korean President Park Guen-hye a zombie and threatening to “obliterate” North Korea’s enemies.

Now, South Korea is reportedly planning to build massive electronic billboards along the border to spew out even more propaganda at its rival.

But do North Koreans even care?

According to honorary professor of international security studies at Sydney University, Peter Hayes, the answer is no.

The director of global security and sustainability think tank Nautilus Institute told news.com.au most North Koreans didn’t care what the world, let alone their neighbours, thought of them.

“One of the remarkable things about North Korea, as in many totalitarian regimes, is that they are completely honest about what outsiders say about them,” he said.

“They will typically take what the South Koreans or the Americans are saying about them and reprint it and say, ‘Look, this is what they are saying about us, it’s ridiculous’.

“I really think they could care less about K-pop or what the South Koreans say about their leader, such as living a good life. It would come as no surprise to North Koreans [that Kim Jong-un is wealthy]; moreover, they would think it appropriate that their North Korean leader lives a good life because he is their leader.

“Any suggestion that [the country] is unstable or these claims made by outsiders, such as [that] Kim Jong-un is an erratic leader — to me, this is either fabrication or propaganda in its own right.”

One of the loudspeakers used to blast K-pop into North Korea. Picture: Korea Pool-Donga Daily via Getty Images

Mr Hayes, who has visited the country seven times and has developed strategies for dealing with security issues in East Asia, said the latest round of psychological warfare was just another chapter in a long, fractured history.

He explained the tit-for-tat tactics were all about the “long game” and the battle for the honour of being the “real” Korea.

“Ultimately this about the Korean conflict, the division of the Korean nation and the competition for who is the real Korea,” Mr Hayes said. “It doesn’t just boil down to how many tanks you have, how many nuclear weapons you do or do not have or how big your economy is. So it’s a very lethal competition.”

The latest round comes just four months after Seoul decided to bring back its loud speakers following an 11-year hiatus.

The South Korean government claimed a landmine that injured two of its soldiers near the border had been planted by Pyongyang. In retaliation, Seoul decided it would turn on the devices to annoy the North.

They were eventually switched off after a series of meetings and reunions for families that had been torn apart by the split of the Korean nation resumed.

Things remained fairly civil until two weeks ago.

So what will happen next?

Mr Hayes says that depends largely on external influences.

“If the Chinese pretty much swallow [North Korea’s] nuclear test and their pride and just continue to deal with the North as it actually is then the North will continue in an opportunistic fashion to exert maximum pressure in ways which will surprise everyone in order to extract whatever military or economic concessions they can get,” he said. “I think they have given up making any real progress with the South. So it’s a very opportunistic this game; it’s about the long game.

“I think they will be waiting to see what happens with the US presidential elections as they will potentially change how the South has to play its cards as the US may change direction either to a more hard-line, ultraconservative strategy or to one that is more diplomatic in nature.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un doesn’t care what people think. Clearly. Picture: AP Photo/Wong Maye-E

As for the relationship between Pyongyang and Beijing, Mr Hayes says its like a marriage of convenience.

“The Chinese dislike the North Koreans and the North Koreans view the Chinese as traitors to their cause because in 1992 it recognised South Korea as a nation without getting the US to recognise them,” he said. “There’s no love lost there; it’s strictly an arrangement of convenience and based on hard calculations of national interest.

“It’s convenient for China to have North Korea as a thorn in the US’s side. Because that means the United States has to remain in the peninsula and thereby ensure that South Korea doesn’t attack and occupy North Korea, which would bring the American military up to the border of China — they don’t want that.

“It also keeps America as a buffer between China and Japan and in that sense they rely on North Korea to keep the US in the region but off balance. They also use it as leverage against the South Koreans so they don’t get too arrogant about the role they play economically in China.

“And they don’t want North Korea to collapse because it would create chaos in the region and see millions of refugees flooding into China and a potential war with the United States.

“For all these reasons the status quo is the preferable to the Chinese. It’s a very conservative one, and it’s a more realistic one unlike the American position, which is North Korea should go away tomorrow. So they have to grin and bear it even if it is something they don’t like.”