Time to resume broadcasting to North Korea

Oct. 10 (UPI) — Two recent shifts in U.S. policy toward North Korea deserve careful attention.

One is the resumption, after a six-month hiatus, of Voice of America broadcasts directed at the North. The other is the permanent deployment of the U.S. MQ-9 “Reaper” drone to Gunsan Air Base.

At first glance, these moves sit uneasily alongside President Trump’s conciliatory signals about a possible summit with Kim Jong Un. Yet, they also send a clear message — particularly to the Lee Jae Myung administration, which has pursued a distinctively engagement-focused policy toward Pyongyang: When it comes to North Korea, Washington still expects close coordination with Seoul.

That reality should serve as a sober reminder that South Korea needs to align its approach with allied strategy on matters of national security.

Begin with the VOA decision. In March, an executive order from President Trump cut funding for Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, prompting VOA’s Korean-language radio service to suspend its broadcasts to the North.

For years, that service had been beaming into the peninsula on medium wave and shortwave at schedules timed to reach North Korean listeners in the early morning and late evening.

On Aug. 28, six months after the shutdown, VOA resumed broadcasts — a rapid recovery from the roughly 80% drop in transmission volume recorded in May. The acting director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Kari Lake, who oversees VOA and RFA, has explained that the president’s social media posts about developments in South Korea factored into the decision to restore service.

The second development is more consequential militarily. On Sept. 29, the U.S. Air Force announced the permanent basing of an MQ-9 Reaper-equipped unit at Gunsan — the newly constituted 431st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron.

While Reapers have visited South Korea for training, this is the first time a unit organized around the platform has been stationed here. The timing is striking. The move came only weeks after Kim Jong Un stood beside President Xi Jinping at a large military parade in Beijing.

The unit’s designation — a revival of the 431st name used during World War II — underscores the symbolic, as well as the operational, intent.

The Reaper is a medium-altitude, long-endurance, unmanned aircraft designed for persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as precision-strike missions.

With a range exceeding 1,600 miles and the ability to remain airborne indefinitely with midair refueling, a Reaper unit based in Gunsan can operate not only over the Korean Peninsula — roughly 150 miles to the north — but also across broad swaths of the Yellow Sea and as far as Taiwan and the Chinese coast.

The platform can carry everything from Hellfire missiles to laser-guided bombs. Its demonstrated effectiveness in targeted-strike roles in other theaters makes its presence here an unmistakable enhancement of allied deterrence.

This deployment follows an earlier operational consolidation. Since July, the United States. has been relocating F-16 fighters from Gunsan to Osan Air Base, closer to the Demilitarized Zone, to create a larger, more forward-postured combat wing.

The transfer, involving 31 F-16s and about 1,000 personnel, is intended to “maximize airpower and improve combat efficiency” in the theater, according to the U.S. Air Force.

Against this backdrop of renewed U.S. informational and military pressure, the Lee administration continues to emphasize a policy of peace and reconciliation.

At the Sept.19 commemorative ceremony marking the seventh anniversary of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, Lee pledged to restore the spirit of the accord and to pursue peace and shared prosperity on the peninsula.

He has reiterated three principles articulated in his Aug. 15 address: respect for North Korea’s political system, rejection of forced absorption and a renunciation of hostile acts. The administration has pointed to its early actions — suspending loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North and halting leaflet drops — as evidence of its good faith.

Pyongyang’s response has been unambiguous and hostile.

Kim Yo Jong‘s barbed rhetoric– dismissing outreach as “a vain dream” and branding the Lee Jae Myung government Washington’s “top lapdog” — signals no softening of tone.

Kim, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has not only reviled South Korean leaders in personal terms, but has stepped up demands that Seoul and Washington recognize the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a legitimate state, even pressing for constitutional changes and for the dismantling of joint operational plans and nuclear consultative mechanisms.

Those specific operational and institutional targets – from the early-response “5022” contingency plan to the U.S.-ROK Nuclear Consultative Group – go to the heart of the alliance and constitute red lines for Seoul and Washington alike.

Given this reality, it is time for the Lee administration to ask whether its posture, which echoes past progressive governments’ confidence in grand gestures of reconciliation, adequately protects South Korea’s core security interests.

Washington’s recent moves suggest that the alliance expects Seoul to make clearer, firmer demarcations on matters such as denuclearization and the preservation of joint operational readiness. Strategic ambiguity or unilateral concessions carry real risks when the other side openly demands the dismantling of deterrent structures and the constitutional redefinition of the Korean state.

Under these circumstances, the Lee administration should resume loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at the North along portions of the Demilitarized Zone — a measure the government suspended immediately after taking office.

That suspension resembled earlier progressive administrations’ pattern of reciprocating conciliatory steps; it produced a short-term thaw, and Pyongyang did briefly silence its own cross-border transmissions.

But that reciprocal pause did not bring a durable easing of demands. Instead, North Korea intensified efforts to undermine the U.S.-ROK alliance — precisely the outcome Seoul cannot accept.

At the time of the suspension, Seoul described the halt as temporary. The military even removed loudspeakers while retaining the option to reinstall them, depending on the response from the North. The recent restoration of U.S. broadcasts shows that Washington is prepared to use information tools to get its message across. Seoul should not lag behind.

Any resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts should be calibrated and reversible. Resume transmission, monitor Pyongyang’s reactions and adjust volume and content as required.

If North Korea’s response proves tepid or hostile, Seoul must be prepared to drop its conciliatory posture and re-emphasize deterrence and alliance solidarity. No Korean citizen — neither conservative nor progressive — will celebrate a government that lets itself be publicly humiliated by Pyongyang. National dignity is not a partisan matter.

From the latest U.S. actions, one can draw a clear hint about direction: coordinate with the alliance, restore the flow of truthful information to the North and reestablish clear boundaries on strategic issues.

Truth is what unnerves authoritarian regimes; it is the most dangerous thing for them. Let Seoul join Washington in letting that voice be heard again.

Nohsok Choi is the former chief editor of the Kyunghyang Shinmun and former Paris correspondent. He currently serves as president of the Kyunghyang Shinmun Alumni Association, president of the Korean Media & Culture Forum and CEO of the YouTube channel One World TV.