South Korea Fires Warning Shots After North Korean Soldiers Cross Border

Facts

• South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced on Tuesday that some North Korean soldiers 'briefly crossed the Military Demarcation Line' into the South on Sunday, with the South issuing 'warning broadcasts and warning shots' with North Korean soldiers retreating.¹
• The JCS claimed that some 20 North Korean soldiers crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) somewhere in the middle of the border, adding that it was likely unintentional. Pyongyang has not yet commented on the incident.²
• This came the same day South Korea played propaganda through speakers along the border for the first time in six years, which was in response to the North launching trash-filled balloons into the South in recent weeks.³
• The North has reportedly been clearing six areas of vegetation along the border since April, with the UN Command stating this is part of Pyongyang's effort to 'harden its boundaries' since officially declaring the South an enemy state.³
• While Pyongyang is believed to have sent over 1K garbage-filled balloons into the south over the years, a South Korean activist group has now begun 3D printing its own 'smart balloons' that drop leaflets and carry loudspeakers hundreds of kilometers into the North.⁴
• Previous propaganda escalations reached a high in 2015 after the South blasted K-pop through its loudspeakers, then tensions began to calm in 2018 after the two sides signed a military accord. Both countries are again reportedly preparing to ramp up their loudspeaker tactics.⁵

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²Forbes, ³NK News, ⁴Reuters.com and ⁵wsj.com.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Daily NK English. King Jong Un's border tactics have only hurt North and South Koreans' chances of finding peace. His garbage balloon stunt, for example, is not only seen as a provocation by the South but as utterly useless by his own citizens. Even Kim's authoritarian predecessors wouldn't have engaged in such tactics, but the North is now, unfortunately, running a regime willing to spark conflict instead of ease tensions.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by MintPress News. Many of the regional news outlets covering North Korea are directly paid for by the CIA-funded National Endowment for Democracy. These original reports are then picked up by Western papers and distributed to the rest of the world. While our attention is turned toward garbage balloons and loud speakers, the real propaganda preventing peace is being curated by US intelligence agencies operating out of newsrooms.

Predictions