An Endless Game: North Korea's Psychological Warfare

Abstract

Abstract The North-South military talks in June 2004 were a turning point that introduced a new phase of psychological warfare as both parties agreed to the removal of all forms of propaganda materials. While North Korea has not given up its political objective to unify the entire Korean peninsula through spreading revolutionary spirit, it has prepared for the next round of psychological warfare by establishing the basic infrastructure needed to conduct psychological warfare in cyberspace since 2000. “Uriminzokkiri,” which means “our nation alone” is a new term created by Pyongyang and also its official website, a tool to foment anti-Americanism, project a peaceful image of itself, and evoke national consciousness in order to create favorable conditions during the period of terse exchanges between the United States and North Korea and to achieve its political objectives regarding South Korea. Some of the findings include: First, the scope of influence of North Korea's propaganda is widening, exerting greater influence on more South Korean people who are familiar with the use of the Internet. Second, North Korea's propaganda might be transmitted implicitly and inculcated as an accepted fact as the Internet provides people with a forum to spread opinions and organize protests. Third, there is no entity that can effectively control North Korea's psychological operation as it is technically impossible to police the web comprehensively. Lastly, it is difficult to verify whether any material posted on the Web sites is related to North Korea's psychological warfare because its message is very obscure and sources are seldom identified. As long as people are exposed to media coverage on DPRK, it should be recognized that North Korea's endless game is still going on.