North Korea’s Psychological Warfare

North Korea is waging psychological warfare to cause internal division in South Korea. This is to avoid punishment or retaliation for its sinking of the South Korean naval patrol ship Cheonan. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has discovered that the North put up posts on a South Korean portal site by using a South Korean’s social security number and ID. Pyongyang obtained the individual`s personal information via hacking. Seoul police also collected more than 300 leaflets Monday saying the evidence of the Cheonan incident was "manipulated" at a large retail store and near Oksu subway station in Seoul`s Seongdong district. Such propaganda and instigation by the North ridicule the probe results of the sinking by a joint civil-military investigation team of South Korea.

Pyongyang’s psychological warfare against Seoul intends to turn false claims into established facts in cooperation with left-leaning forces in the South. When the sinking occurred, the North had no comment. At the time, certain leftists in South Korea claimed that the vessel was split in half after being stranded, sank due to an internal explosion, or submerged after colliding with a U.S. submarine. Such unfounded rumors were quieted by the discovery of a part from a North Korean torpedo by a South Korean fishing boat May 15 and a catalog published by the North for arms exports obtained by the South Korean military in 2006 in Venezuela.

The North has denied having mid-size submarines, but Japanese media reported in 2008 that the communist country exported to Iran a 130-ton submarine equipped with two torpedo tubes. The Iranian navy has released photos of the torpedo. Google Earth has also posted a 2006 photo of a mid-size submarine anchored at a naval base in the North`s Bipa Bay.

South Korea leftists, who seem to believe everything the communist country says, claim that the North uses “ho” instead of “beon” when indicating a number. Not so, says a North Korean who was captured after a North Korean submarine infiltrated waters off the South Korean port city of Gangneung. Ri Kwang Su said, “North Korea uses `beon` when dealing with machinery parts.” Pyongyang took the claims of certain pro-North Korea forces and spread them on the Internet, and other pro-North Korea groups are repeating such groundless claims. The North and South Korea’s leftist forces are cooperating to try to make such claims seem like established facts.

Teenagers, who lack the capacity for critical thinking, could be deceived by such unfounded claims. The South Korean people should not be swayed by the North`s sly psychological warfare and the false arguments of leftist forces.