A former soldier in a South Korean psyops unit recounts his first-hand role in a top-secret operation to send anti-regime leaflets into North Korea starting in 2023

“No, it was our own psyops group that first launched leaflets into North Korea.”

The former soldier smiles bitterly when he recalls the South Korean military’s claim that North Korea’s release of garbage-laden balloons had prompted it to resume propaganda broadcasts on loudspeakers on the border with North Korea.

That was in May and June of last year, during a time of rising tensions when defector groups launched leaflets into North Korea, which responded by lobbing waste back across the border. South Korea then resumed loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts, prompting North Korea to turn on its own loudspeakers.

The young man performed his military service as a member of South Korea’s Defense Psychological Operations Group in 2023 and 2024.

South Korea halted its balloon launches shortly before the martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024, and President Lee Jae Myung halted the loudspeaker broadcasts as a preemptive measure this June, leading North Korea to turn off its own loudspeakers.

The former soldier gave a very detailed account of the psyop group’s activities to the Hankyoreh on Sunday. He declined to reveal his face or real name out of consideration for the soldiers he had served beside.

Since he was tasked with technical calculations for the group’s leaflet launching operations, he had a clear grasp of the...

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