[KSM-CINAP Joint Column 1] Trash Balloons and Conversion

The Catholic Institute of Northeast Asia Peace and the Korean Sharing Movement jointly publish a regular column as part of our work to improve inter-Korean relations and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. We welcome your continued interest and support.

 

Trash Balloons and Conversion

Father Peter Joo-seok Kang (Director of the Catholic Institute of Northeast Asia Peace)

The 2019 film Wasp Network tells the story of Cuban spies active in the United States in the 1990s. At that time, Cubans who had defected to the United States formed organizations in Miami, Florida to oppose the Cuban regime. Some even committed terror attacks in Cuba, and in response, the Cuban government sent fake defectors to the United States as spies. These agents, armed with patriotism, infiltrated and worked within the anti-Castro networks. In the film, based on a true story, the main character disguises himself as an exile and begins to pilot an airplane for one of the anti-Castro organizations. He rescues Cuban defectors adrift at sea and flies over Havana, scattering leaflets criticizing the regime.

The leaflet campaigns featured in the film truly had a significant impact on US-Cuba relations. In February 1996, while scattering leaflets criticizing the Castro regime in Cuban airspace, a plane belonging to the defector organization Brothers to the Rescue was shot down by the Cuban Air Force. After this civilian plane was destroyed, the United States intensified sanctions against Cuba, worsening the situation, and it took a considerable amount of time for the the two countries to improve relations. This further extended the suffering of the Cuban people experiencing the direct impact of the sanctions.



Beginning on the evening of May 28th, North Korea launched balloons carrying bags of garbage and manure toward South Korea. These trash balloons were found not only in the border area but also throughout South Korea. Residents of Gyeonggi Province even received emergency disaster text messages in the middle of the night, such as, “Unidentified objects presumed to be Anti-South leaflets from North Korea detected.” Messages using the English expression “air raid” further fanned the flames of shock. People who read the ominous content when their cell phones rang loudly just before midnight must have had trouble sleeping.

On May 29th, the day following the distribution of the so-called “anti-South leaflet balloons”, Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, made a statement claiming that the “rubbish” they sent should be regarded as a “sincere presents” and that such gifts should continue. She also made it clear that scattering anti-South leaflets was done in response to the anti-North leaflet campaigns, saying, “I doubt whether those in the ROK [South Korea] could only see the balloons flying southwards without catching sight of the balloons flying northwards.”

Since South Korea’s “Anti-North Leaflet Ban” was ruled unconstitutional last September, North Korean human rights groups in the South have resumed their anti-North leaflet campaigns this year. According to media reports, on May 10th alone, they dispatched over 300,000 leaflets into the North. Two weeks later, on the 26th, North Korea’s Ministry of National Defence announced its plans to scatter leaflets across the South.

In recent inter-Korean relations, sending leaflets to the North has been the issue which North Korea most strongly opposes. Sending leaflets not only reveals the hostility between the two Koreas but also continues to play a role in inciting conflict. For example, North Korea took issue with scattering leaflets in June 2020, when it blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office. At that time, a group of North Korean defectors launched large balloons carrying 500,000 leaflets into North Korea. The North responded with a statement that it could “no longer tolerate” such incidents and declared in advance its intention to demolish the Inter-Korean Liaison Office.



Although North Korea announced on June 2nd that it would temporarily suspend sending trash balloons south, there is a high possibility that future leaflet campaigns could lead to further confrontation and conflict on the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean Ministry of National Defence released a statement, emphasizing its intention to resume the trash balloon campaign if South Korea resumes scattering leaflets. How will the South Korean government respond if organizations continue to send anti-North leaflets and North Korea responds by sending in more large batches of trash balloons? Will this leaflet situation be fundamentally resolved if South Koreans scatter more anti-North leaflets, or use better loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda? Currently, communication between the North and South is cut off; distrust of the other has reached its peak. If scattering leaflets continues the state of confrontation between the Koreas, it could escalate into an irreversible situation. If either the North or South Korean authorities reach the point where they can no longer tolerate it, resumption of military conflict on the Korean Peninsula is a distinct possibility.

During his 2014 visit to South Korea, Pope Francis celebrated a mass for peace and reconciliation at Myeongdong Cathedral. In his homily, the Pope stated that reconciliation, unity, and peace are closely connected to God’s grace of conversion, explaining conversion as a change of heart that can alter the course of our lives as individuals and our history as a people. The Greek word metanoia, translated as “conversion” or “repentance” in Christianity, is often explained as turning back from the path one was taking. However, the word itself contains the meaning of “going beyond” (meta) “knowing” (noeó). Therefore, in turning away from a wrong path, conversion can be understood as finding new understanding and going beyond the prejudices that one has believed up to this point.

Beginning in June 2024, the Korean Sharing Movement and the Catholic Institute of Northeast Asia Peace plan to produce a series of joint columns for peace on the Korean Peninsula. We remember Pope Francis’ earnest appeal, emphasizing conversion for peace, and we hope that this joint column will become an effort to find a new understanding of inter-Korean relations. If we want peace and not destruction, the Korean Peninsula must find a new path—one different from the past. True peace requires turning in a different direction, where we can understand—or sometimes tolerate—each other’s positions, rather than being hostile and threatening each other.

Photo 1) Wasp Network Poster ⓒ Netflix

Photo 2) Leaflets dropped by Brothers to the Rescue in 1996 ⓒ Wikipedia

Photo 3) North Korean leaflet balloon discovered in Paju, Gyeonggi Province on May 29th. ⓒYonhap News