ABC news is carrying a story by Hyung-Jin Kim, [S.Korea Fires Warning Shots After North Korean Drone Seen, 13 Jan 2016] about the South firing on a N. Korean drone, but part of that story also covers some of the most interesting aspects of trying to reach people who would normally be on the Internet. In North Korea they aren't.
Both the North and South tried to send balloons over the border with messages in leaflets, then set up loud speakers along the border to broadcast music and news. These charming reminders of ancient Cold War slogans call for an overthrow of the South's government or dealing with them as you would "a mad dog". You can imagine one of these leaflets falling in a place like Anderson, New York, where a farmer plowing a field finds them scattered among the just-started soybeans. "Wow, what's this? ". He reads the message which says he should treat the Obama White House like a bunch of mad dogs, without much specific detail about what he should do or when. "Who dropped all this crap in my field?", he says with a stern look around at a balloon draped over the fence on his entryway to the field. He gets back on the tractor and calls the local Sheriff. They have had other complaints and are checking around for the source, which appears to be someplace in Canada. On the way back to the barn, he hears music....
This can't be for real in a world where communication is by cell phone and tablet, but it is real in North and South Korea. This passes for psychological warfare in both countries, at first a funny thing to even think about, but given the explosion of a nuclear device in the North, less funny than it might otherwise be. We are dealing with a country in the North that has hacked Sony in the USA, released e-mails from them, fired off missiles one after another, and has broadcast TV showing their leaders kissing the hands of the Great Leader himself. But, they drop leaflets on the South hoping for some revolution to come from it. There is something not right there...
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