[Defense Club] Spreading the Truth Is Psychological Warfare

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] During war, fake news has been used as a means to confuse the enemy and boost the morale of friendly forces. This is psychological warfare. Sun Tzu's Art of War emphasizes that "the best of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; it is best to win without fighting," highlighting the importance of psychological warfare as a key tactic in war.

During World War II, the Allied forces spread false information that "there will be no landing in Normandy" to confuse the enemy. During the Korean War, General MacArthur spread rumors that U.S. troops would land in Wonsan ahead of the Incheon landing operation. Our military also shook the hearts of North Korean soldiers and residents through leaflets called ‘ppira.’ The idea for ppira was inspired by the case of the Mainland Operations Unit in Taiwan. Taiwan’s Mainland Operations Unit sent food items such as jerky and oil attached to balloons to mainland China to mislead the locals.

As time passed, fake news lost its effectiveness. It could not overcome the truth spreading through the internet and social networking services (SNS). A representative case was when multinational forces, including the U.S., distributed a large number of videotapes stating "Hussein is corrupt" during the 1991 Gulf War to remove Saddam Hussein and shake the enemy’s morale by revealing the truth.

After the Korean War, our government conducted ‘truth-telling’ psychological warfare in the frontline areas through loudspeakers and radio broadcasts aimed at North Korea. The effect was significant. Many defectors and North Korean escapees testified that they listened to the broadcasts using FM radio receivers. However, on June 15, 2004, after 42 years of broadcasting, the radio broadcasts to North Korea were discontinued. Prior to this, the Kim Dae-jung administration, which took office in 1998, accepted North Korea’s demand to ban the distribution of ‘ppira’ in April 2000, just before the inter-Korean summit. However, civic groups still distribute ‘DVD ppira,’ which combines information technology (IT) with leaflets.

Last year, the Moon Jae-in administration launched a ‘North Korean Fake News Monitoring’ project funded by the Ministry of Unification’s budget. At the time of legislation, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea argued that fake news negatively affected the implementation of inter-Korean policies. Led by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Kyung-hyup and others, a budget of 200 million won was allocated. However, this project ended after just one year. It is very unusual for a government project to terminate within a year. The government plans to continue the project under the name ‘Online Issue Management’ until this year. The project involves collecting real-time data from blogs, cafes, communities, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms to analyze and summarize public opinion trends regarding the Ministry of Unification’s policies spreading online. This deviates from the original intent of monitoring North Korean fake news proposed by the Democratic Party. The unclear criteria for classifying fake news and the lack of countermeasures only weakened the media’s critical function.

If there is incorrect information, it must be corrected immediately. However, in the flood of information, the filtering responsibility lies with the public and readers. The government should not attempt to control public opinion simply because it conflicts with inter-Korean policies. Rather, the budget should be used to disseminate more accurate information. More efforts should be made to inform North Korea of the truth. Equally important as preparing for war is informing the enemy of the truth to make them give up on war. We must realize that Sun Tzu’s emphasis on this being the ‘best of all’ is not an empty exaggeration.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.