Jason Strother

GlobalPost

North Korea has switched its printing presses into overdrive and is bombarding South Korea with propaganda leaflets in numbers not seen for decades.

The papers, which feature both hand drawn and Photoshopped images as well as text, are Pyongyang’s “attempt at spreading fake news,” says Yoo Dong-ryul, who heads an independent research center in Seoul.

According to local media reports, more than 2 million of these papers have been found scattered on the streets of the capital and in provinces near the border since the end of 2015 — a volume not seen since the 1970s and '80s.

North Korea’s military is believed to send the flyers over the demilitarized zone via balloons equiped with timers that release their payload in seemingly random locations. In March, a group of hikers came across several of these glossy sheets of paper strewn along a wooded trail on Seoul’s Gwanak Mountain.

After one look at the images, they realized this was no ordinary litter.

Yoo Dong-ryul says the flyers are meant to deceive those who find them by displaying “made up names of alleged South Korean organizations” — an attempt to make them seem “more legitimate.” He adds that many of the leaflets found over the past year capitalized on public anger directed at Park, who was removed from office in March following months of mass demonstrations.Anti-Americanism is another common theme, Yoo says.

Pictures have also been shared recently on South Korean social media showing recovered flyers. Some of those include depictions of President Donald Trump and refer to him as an “old beast lunatic” — an insult North Korea has in the past translated as “dotard.”

In the past, both Koreas dropped subversive material into each other’s territory with the intent of inciting insurrection or defection.

The tactic has been used ever since the 1950-53 Korean War, when American forces sent millions of anti-Communist flyers into the North, according to the book "Bury The Enemy With Leaflets."

In 2004 during a period of rapprochement, the North and South Korean militaries agreed to end this propaganda war. But, some activist groups in the south, often run by North Korean refugees or churches, stepped up their own northward balloon launches. Their content ranges from DVDs of South Korean dramas to biblical passages.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, says Pyongyang’s recent uptick in flyer dispersal is a “counter measure” to Seoul’s condoning of these groups as well as the government’s decision two years ago to resume loudspeaker broadcasts across the DMZ.

Missed the mark

The flyers are unlike other forms of North Korean propaganda art due to their “visceral violence directed toward a small group of people,” such as the ousted president Park, according to Jacco Zwetsloot, who researched North Korean comic art at Leiden University in the Netherlands and has reviewed dozens of the recently recovered papers.

“The leaflets are much more personalized” and are unlike North Korean propaganda posters, which depict “a violence that’s more general,” he says.

Zwetsloot says the leaflets’ content shows the authors have significant access to news and information from outside of their country, which is forbidden in the North. But, if their goal is to sway the minds of South Koreans with these pictures, “they missed the mark,” he adds.

“They are far too gory and gross,” says Zwetsloot, adding “you never saw this level of hate toward Park,” even from her South Korean critics.

In addition to their over the top violence, the new batch of flyers provides examples of Pyongyang’s version of satirical art.

This article originally appeared n PRI.org. Its content was created separately to USA TODAY.

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