DEUTSCHE WELLE

APLN member Eunjung Lim was quoted in Deutsche Welle regarding the potentially incendiary events on the Korean Peninsula in recent days. She believes that younger generations in North Korea are increasingly skeptical of the Kim regime’s propaganda, making the situation there unstable.

Along with the daily hardships that ordinary people have had to endure, more and more North Koreans are learning about the comfortable lives of the people in South Korea through thumb drives that are smuggled over the border.

Pyongyang sees this as a threat to its regime and is attempting to stamp itout iwith increasingly draconian punishments.

“The younger generations have less belief in Kim, making the situation there unstable,” said Lim Eun-jung, an associate professor of international studies at Kongju National University. She believes the North “is feeling the fatigue” of the regime’s propaganda.

“Making threats against the South is cheaper than firing more missiles or carrying out another nuclear test, but it is also ironic that they are complaining about drones dropping propaganda because the North has sent thousands of balloons carrying trash into the South over the last few months,” she told DW.

The South Korean government estimates that more than 6,000 balloons carrying waste have crossed the border into the South in the last four months, some causing damage to buildings and vehicles and others starting fires.

“Russia is supporting the North now and recently condemned Seoul for sending a drone into the North, but they have said nothing about the balloons invading our airspace,” Lim said.

Kim Jong Un may feel his regime is protected through his alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin, she said, but the pact is in a “honeymoon period” that will quickly fizzle once the North has nothing more that Russia needs.

Read the full article here.

Image: iStock