Their plan was thwarted after the Sokcho Coast Guard — having patrol jurisdiction over four ports in Gangwon — informed the anti-North groups that “launching anti-Pyongyang leaflets on fishing vessels is strictly prohibited by the Fishing Vessels Act.”
The groups intended to send some 50,000 propaganda flyers denouncing the North’s regime carried by large balloons after departing from Geojin Port in Goseong County, Gangwon, on Tuesday afternoon. Goseong County is the province’s most northern region and sits on the inter-Korean border.
Their latest endeavor appeared to be a new tactic, as their previous attempts on the ground were thwarted by police restrictions and strong resistance from residents living in border-adjacent regions in Gyeonggi.The Coast Guard’s refusal on Tuesday to allow the use of fishing vessels for flyer-distribution purposes prompted the groups to seek other means, including merchant ships and other vessels. The anti-North groups also announced their new plan to launch the leaflets at an observatory near the inter-Korean border in Goseong County.
The anti-North groups said they would “cancel plans of using fishing vessels to disperse anti-Pyongyang leaflets on waters considering zones for fishers,” according to the Sokcho Coast Guard at around 4 p.m.
To receive permission for their new launch plan near the observatory, the groups reportedly went to the Goseong Police Station, as a ground-based launch requires a declaration of assembly. The specific schedule for the launches has yet to be decided.
The Gangwon provincial government and the county office are reportedly discussing responses to the groups’ upcoming launches.
For the launches, the families of the abductees newly designed their flyers and posters, which now include an image of Kim Jong-un behind prison bars and text that reads, “Abductees will return once Kim Jong-un is gone.” The flyers also warned North Korea’s leaders that the flyers would continue landing in North Korea.
The defectors and relatives of the abductees claimed that they were wielding “their due and legitimate rights to verify whether their relatives in North Korea are alive or dead” by sending those leaflets.
Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, defended their actions by saying, “There is no reason for central and local governments to prohibit our actions.”
Park said the regime is “stirring up an internal division in the South” on the issue of anti-Pyongyang leaflets launches. He added that politicians who asked to halt his group’s attempt were “taking sides with the North.”
BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]
