South Korea’s Defense Ministry has launched an investigation into the military’s psychological operations unit over allegations that it distributed anti-North Korea leaflets over the border without notifying higher command last year, officials said Friday.
According to military officials, Defense Ministry investigators conducted on-site inspections on Monday at units stationed on islands in the West Sea and along the western front line near the inter-Korean border. Former and current unit commanders holding the rank of colonel, who were serving at the time the alleged launches took place, were also summoned for questioning.
The probe follows a report by a local newspaper, which cited testimony from a former soldier from the unit claiming that the they launched balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets more than 10 times between October 2023 and early December last year. The start of the alleged operations would have preceded North Korea’s balloon-borne trash campaigns, which began in May 2024. Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back ordered an immediate fact-finding inquiry after the report surfaced.
The controversy has rippled into political circles, with President Lee Jae Myung acknowledging during a foreign press briefing Wednesday that he believes Seoul “should apologize to North Korea” if the allegations prove true. “But I am worried about being branded as pro-North,” he said, adding that he has refrained from speaking publicly out of concern the issue could be weaponized in domestic ideological disputes.
On Monday, Lee posted the article on X, formerly Twitter, highlighting claims that South Korean forces may have launched leaflets before Pyongyang began sending waste-filled balloons southward. “We nearly went to war,” he wrote, warning that “hidden acts of insurrection” must not be left unchecked.
Campaigns in which leaflets are flown on balloons toward North Korea — usuall conducted by civilian activist groups — had been banned under amendments to the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act in 2020. However, the Constitutional Court ruled parts of the ban unconstitutional in September 2023, effectively allowing such activities to resume. While state-led leaflet operations ceased after the 2000 inter-Korean summit, some civic organizations have continued launches independently.
The Defense Ministry has not indicated when the ongoing investigation will conclude.
Meanwhile, a separate trial also began Monday for former President Yoon Suk Yeol and several ex-defense officials over allegations that they ordered military drones to be flown into North Korean airspace last year to provoke a hostile response that could justify declaring emergency martial law.
Prosecutors say the drone breached North Korean airspace on multiple nights before crashing near Pyongyang, leaking sensitive data. A memo recovered from the phone of former Defense Security Command chief Yeo In-hyung — stating that instability should be “created or exploited” to achieve political ends — has been cited as key evidence.
Established in 1983, the psychological operations unit is a Defense Ministry-controlled outfit responsible for conducting psychological warfare against North Korea through radio broadcasts, loudspeakers, leaflets and other means.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
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