Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08SEOUL2285
2008-11-28 06:32:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Seoul
Cable title:  

ANTI-DPRK LEAFLET DROPPING WILL CONTINUE, VOWS NGO

Tags:  PROP PREL KS KN 
pdf how-to read a cable
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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUL #2285/01 3330632
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 280632Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY SEOUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2454
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 4995
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PRIORITY 9096
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 5101
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG PRIORITY 3863
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J5 SEOUL KOR PRIORITY
RUACAAA/COMUSKOREA INTEL SEOUL KOR PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMUSFK SEOUL KOR PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 002285 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/28/2018
TAGS: PROP PREL KS KN
SUBJECT: ANTI-DPRK LEAFLET DROPPING WILL CONTINUE, VOWS NGO

REF: A. SEOUL 002282

B. SEOUL 002178

Classified By: POL M/C Joseph Yun. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 002285

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/28/2018
TAGS: PROP PREL KS KN
SUBJECT: ANTI-DPRK LEAFLET DROPPING WILL CONTINUE, VOWS NGO

REF: A. SEOUL 002282

B. SEOUL 002178

Classified By: POL M/C Joseph Yun. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).


1. (C) Summary: On November 26, POL M/C met with Fighters
For Free North Korea Chair Park Hak-Sang, responsible for
sending anti-DPRK leaflets, triggering mounting tensions in
South-North relations. Park said he was facing increasing
pressure to stop, including the Ministry of Unification and
fellow NGOs, but was determined to carry on. The next batch
of leaflets, or "balloon postcards," as Park called them,
could be sent as early as December 1 near Panmunjom, pending
wind conditions. Funding was the biggest concern, Park said,
as his organization does not receive government or big-ticket
private donations. Park confided that he believed the ROKG
is using his organization as a tool, because the government
has not shut down Park's NGO, even though it could do so
"anytime, if they really wanted to." As the son of Pyongyang
elite, Park had a bright future in North Korea, but was
forced to defect in 1999, when his father, who worked for a
DPRK intelligence agency, ran afoul of the authorities. Park
married another defector, a former DPRK Army officer, in
2001, after meeting her through an introduction by NIS, the
South Korean spy agency. End Summary.

--------------
Pressure from MOU, but Renewed Support From Public
--------------


2. (C) Pol M/C met November 26 with Fighters For Free North
Korea Chair Park Sang-hak, now at the center of the
deteriorating South-North relations because his leaflet
activities. Park said that he had come under intense
pressure to stop sending leaflets, especially from the
Ministry of Unification, but also from civic groups and
church organizations. As a result, he announced through a
November 22 press conference he would suspend leafleting for
3 months. However, within hours, Pyongyang announced new
measures restricting border access, including stopping
Kaesong City Tours and, stopping rail services and
restricting access to Kaesong Industrial Complex (Ref A). It
was therefore, easy for him to reverse the earlier decision,
which he did on November 24.


3. (C) The next launch, planned from near Panmunjom, could be
as early as December 1 or 2, depending on the wind. So far,

Park has collected 700 USD worth of one-dollar bills and
Chinese five-Yuan notes. Park confided that if the
government really wanted to shut his NGO down, they could,
but a lack of ROKG effort to stop his activities served as a
proof to him that the ROKG is in fact supportive of his
activities. Park also believed that the ROKG was using him
as a tool because "they don't have any other tool at this
time." Park said that his support among conservative groups
had increased substantially since November 24, when he
decided to continue the activities.

--------------
Lack of Funding
--------------


4. (C) Park said that lack of funding was the biggest
challenge. The effectiveness of his leaflets was obvious
from Pyongyang's reaction, he said. The leaflets were having
an enormous effect in educating -- and destabilizing -- the
North. In contrast radio broadcasts had limited impact, yet,
NGOs and government groups continued to fund them, while his
activities were ignored.


5. (C) Park recounted that Fighters For Free North Korea had
been given approximately USD 85,000 a year from the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the past, but this was cut
off after an egg throwing incident two years ago. (NOTE:
Then-Chairman of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee
and a former intelligence officer Chung Hyung-keun, who was
responsible for sending spies to North Korea for a number of
years, proposed a change of the National security law in July

2006. ROK conservative groups opposed this proposal. Park
was the alleged angry egg thrower. END NOTE.) Park did not
see how this served as material for cutting off aid, since he
was never prosecuted for this incident. Park said that he
met with NED to explain the situation, but no avail to date.


6. (C) Turning to the costs of leafleting, Park said that
about USD 5,000 could send one balloon-full of anti-DPRK
leaflets, or around 300,000 "balloon postcards" as he renamed
them recently. Leaflets with cash attached would cost more,
he added. Usually, he attaches USD 1 bill to one in 200
leaflets. Park said that he heard from a relative in North
Korea that the leaflets with USD 1 bills dropped in the
southwest part of North Korea became known around the
DPRK-Chinese border quickly, with locals searching everywhere
for the leaflets. One dollar exchange at black market was
equivalent to a month wage. Authorities also caught on too,
because those changing one dollar bills were getting into
trouble. So, Park now plans to use in the leaflets NKwon
5,000 bills, which he could get easily from the Chinese-North
Korea border areas.

--------------
Personal History
--------------


7. (C) Park's father was a high ranking DPRK intelligence
officer responsible for sending agents to South Korea. In
1997, many agents betrayed the organization, leading to a
huge purge. About that time, Park was working in the Central
Youth Propaganda Committee in Pyongyang. As a member of the
Pyongyang elite, Park had graduated from the Kim Il-sung
University and Kim Chaek Technical University and had a
bright future ahead of him, when he was contacted by his
father, who was then stationed in Japan. Facing an imminent
purge, Park had no choice but to flee to China. Park, his
mother and two younger siblings crossed the Yalu River and
flew into South Korea through Beijing in 1999. Park later
learned that his extended family members, including young
nieces and nephews, died after an interrogation regarding
Park's whereabouts. Park married another defector, a former
DPRK military officer whom he met through the ROK National
Intelligence Service, and they have a six-year-old child.


8. (C) Park and his six immediate family members, also
defectors, make up 70 percent of the Fighters For Free North
Korea staff. Until recently, three NGOs used to send
leaflets to North Korea: Park's Fighters For Free North
Korea, the Organization for South-North Family Reunions, and
a Christian organization. The Christian organization stopped
all leafleting activities in October after public criticism.
The family reunion group is still hanging on, but with no
real contribution. Hence, Park's organization serves as the
sole organization responsible for sending leaflets to North
Korea for the time being, and his efforts remain in the
spotlight.

--------------
Comment
--------------


9. (C) Propaganda warfare between the two Koreas is as old
as the division of the Peninsula, and sending balloons with
leaflets, and sometimes with light-weight radios, is just as
old. Yet, we cannot recall any other propaganda tool that
has bothered Pyongyang as much as Park's shoestring
operation. Quite simple in design, Park's leaflets are
different in that they are informational; previous leaflets
tended to be either religious or a call to overthrow the
regime. For example, Park's most recent leaflets detail Kim
Jong-il's health, and his family tree, including Kim
Jong-il's various wives, mistresses and their children. The
other key difference is, of course, attaching to the leaflet
USD 1 dollar bill or small Chinese notes. With this
innovation, Park has made sure that North Koreans look for
the leaflets, because they have an enormous value.
STEPHENS