North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

that the war in Iraq was “a test war for the second Korean War,” and therefore warranted high
vigilance on the part of the North Korean people. 85 Reports picked up from the U.S. press about
a new Operation Plan 5030 to supplement Oplan 5027 for conducting military operations against
North Korea further reinforced North Korean concerns. 86
The North Koreans have been particularly interested in the psychological operations
(psyops) dimension of the war in Iraq. Here is Nodong Sinmun’s take on the operation and its
relevance to the North Korea case: 87 The Iraq war, which had been anticipated to drag on, came
to an end some time ago. . . . Were the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi regular army troops then
wiped out by U.S. high-tech weapons? . . . Public opinion gathering strength today has it that the
U.S. ‘victory’ in the Iraq war is attributable more to psychological warfare experts than to ultraprecision
weapons. . . The fact that the United States is ballyhooing ‘victory’ and crediting it to
its high-tech weapons is, in itself, psychological warfare.”
As to the psyops method: “The No. 1 target in the U.S. psychological campaign was the
Iraqi leadership. . . . The U.S. CIA and military intelligence agencies focused on establishing
contact with general officers of the Iraqi army and high-ranking figures of the Ba’ath Party
through modern communication networks such as e-mail and cell phones. . . . The United States
carried out false propaganda prior to the beginning of the war. It was to the effect that Iraqi
Deputy Prime Minister Aziz ‘has the intention of defecting.’. . . It pressed on a large-scale false
propaganda campaign vilifying Saddam Husayn, his sons, vice presidents, and other members of
the Iraqi leadership.” 88
Bribery allegedly plays an important role in U.S. psyops: “The U.S. imperialists are
attempting to easily realize their aggressive goal by seizing control of the pertinent country’s
leading classes through a reinforced bribe campaign against them. . . . According to data, at a
decisive moment right before a fierce battle in the capital, Baghdad, it is said that hundreds of
Iraqi military commanders were taken in by the United States’ bribe campaign; either they ran
away to foreign countries or surrendered themselves. . . . Of late, the United States is reportedly
planning a large-scale bribe campaign against our functionaries. They [the Americans] are
running amok, with bloodshot eyes, to find out about our functionaries’ ideological leanings and
85 KCNA, March 30, 2003, citing a Nodong Sinmun commentary on the same date. FBIS KPP20030330000010.
86 “Extremely dangerous New War Plan for Northward Aggression,” KCBS, July 21, 2003. FBIS
KPP20030721000029.
87 Yi Kyong-su, “Psychological Warfare - the U.S. Imperialists’ Cunning Way of Aggression and Domination.”
Nodong Sinmun, May 15, 2003, p. 6. FBIS KPP20030530000013.
88 Ibid.
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