Leaflet dropping via balloons released from South Korea to float into residential areas of the North have been commonplace for years in North Korea. The leaflets are often released by human rights groups from Seoul and contain details of the more comfortable lifestyle of South Koreans, truths about North Korea’s leadership, and sometimes money and shortwave radios. North Korean authorities dispatch teams to collect and destroy many of these leaflets, and encourage people who have found them to turn them in without reading them, and report anyone who is seen reading them. Often the punishment for being caught will be time spent in a “re-education” camp, or a lighter sentence may be imposed if bribes are accepted.
In a clear example to North Koreans that reading these leaflets or pocketing their contents is unacceptable, officials in Sariwon in North Hwanghae Province gathered 500 people to witness the execution of a 45 year old woman accused of reading the pamphlets and a high ranking soldier for pocketing money from a balloon. The families of both executions were then sent to labour camps.
Recently, North Korean soldiers killed 5 and wounded 2 defectors, chasing them right across the Chinese border and shooting them on Chinese soil. The increased punishment for dissidence may be seen as a warning to those opposing the 3rd generation succession process, as son Kim Jong-Un slowly gets his feet wet under father Kim Jong-Il’s tutelage in Pyongyang.
Source: The Chosun Ilbo (2)
