Nuclear stalemate sparks debate over information campaign aimed at North Korea

Washington — As a nuclear standoff between the United States and North Korea continues with no diplomatic off-ramp in sight, some experts in Washington say an information campaign aimed at pressing North Korea should be considered as an alternative strategy, while others caution against such an approach.

The discussion comes as the North escalates tensions while the U.N. Security Council remains split over how to respond to Pyongyang's increasing threats.

Kim Song, North Korea's U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday his country will resolutely hold onto its nuclear weapons, saying "we will never bargain," regardless of who gets elected as the next U.S. president in November.

Last month, North Korea's state media outlets released photos showing leader Kim Jong Un visiting what they claimed to be a uranium enrichment facility, another move against international calls to resume talks on denuclearization. It was the first time it had disclosed a uranium enrichment facility publicly.

Nuclear standoff

Talks between the U.S. and North Korea have been stalled since October 2019.

Moreover, Russia, one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with veto power, has blocked U.N. action against the North since February 2022, when it invaded Ukraine. Moscow has deepened military ties with Pyongyang since it started the war.

Russia has imported dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 18,000 containers of munitions and munitions-related materiel from North Korea since its invasion of Ukraine, Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said at a U.N. Security Council meeting in September.

Some experts suggest Washington consider launching an information campaign against Pyongyang, separate from the work of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, U.S. government-funded broadcasters. The two networks reach people inside North Korea through their Korean language broadcasts.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said Washington policymakers have long neglected an information campaign aimed at North Korea as a viable strategy for pressing Pyongyang to change its provocative behavior.

"We really haven't had an overall information strategy that cuts across everything that is happening," Maxwell told VOA Korean on Tuesday in an interview.

Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel who served on the Combined Forces Command of the U.S and South Korea, said information is a threat to Pyongyang and could possibly drive the North Korean leader to the negotiating table.

The U.S. should respond to every North Korean provocation by actively informing North Korean people of their dire human rights situations, Maxwell argued.

"If North Korea conducts a missile test, the response should not just stop at condemning the act," he said. "Kim's deliberate decision to prioritize nuclear weapons and missiles is what is causing the suffering of the Korean people in the North. That should be a routine message that we should be sending in response to every action by North Korea."

Targeted information campaign

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, said information could be part of the targeted efforts to put pressure on the Kim regime.

"We could tell Kim Jong Un, look, we know you're preparing to do a seventh nuclear weapon test. If you do that, we will send a million USB drives into the Pyongyang area with K-Pop, K-dramas and messages to your senior leaders," he told VOA Korean by phone on Tuesday.

Bennett stressed it is time that the U.S. government renews its understanding that information can be a powerful tool.

"You go back to World War II, we viewed information as being very powerful," he said. "But we've lost sight of that."

Bennett added that the U.S. government should mobilize its experts in psychological operations to put together an effective campaign plan.

Some are cautious about using information tactics against North Korea.

Robert Rapson, who served as chargé d'affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, told VOA Korean on Wednesday via email that an information campaign may complement sanctions and effective diplomacy, but risks could follow.

"Turning the volume and intensity of the information campaign way up, as some are now advocating, runs the clear risk of escalating tensions across the demilitarized zone in ways that threaten peace and stability, to include the distinct possibility of war," Rapson said. "The regime would undoubtedly see a high intensity information campaign as a major provocation of existential dimensions and would respond accordingly."

Rapson also said significant qualitative improvements are needed in dissemination technology as well as message focus and content, for an enhanced information campaign to have any chance of success, however long-term that might be.

Potential risks

Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, said implementing such an approach would prove challenging but is "doable."

"The North Korean regime fears exposing its people to the reality of the outside world — the real situation in South Korea and other countries as compared to the dire economic and health care situation in North Korea," DeTrani told VOA Korean on Wednesday via email. "Mindful of this, inserting truthful information into North Korea must be done with care, given the harsh treatment by the regime to those who dare to listen or read foreign broadcasts, videos, newspapers, etc."

Meanwhile, Maxwell said the end goal of the information strategy should be to empower the North Korean people with information.

"Only through information can the people be empowered to create conditions where new emerging leadership can come to power," he said. "So that, they change the direction of North Korea and ultimately, their leaders."

The U.S. State Department has stressed the need for an effort to facilitate the flow of independent information into North Korea when asked whether the U.S. should consider using information as a pressure tool against the North.

"An informed citizenry, with unfettered access to information, is critical for responsive governance and contributes to regional peace, security, and prosperity," a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed response on Thursday to a VOA Korean inquiry. "The United States will continue to coordinate with like-minded governments to cooperate on areas such as access to information and advancing accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in the DPRK."

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.