Southern greetings: Fighters For Free North Korea showing contents of balloons sent to the North by the group, including USB flash drives and thousands of US one-dollar bills. — AFP
An activists’ group said it flew large balloons carrying propaganda leaflets towards North Korea, although the North has threatened to send more balloons with manure and trash across the border in response to such campaigns.
The launches are escalating animosities, with South Korea suspending a tension-easing deal with North Korea and preparing to resume frontline military activities.
North Korea had halted its flights of rubbish-carrying balloons but threatened to resume them if South Korean activists sent leaflets again.
The South Korean civilian group, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it floated 10 balloons tied to 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean dramas and one-dollar US bills from a border town yesterday.
Park’s long-running balloon activities have caused furious protests from North Korea, which is extremely wary of any outside attempt to undermine Kim Jong-un’s rule.
After North Korea started launching hundreds of trash-carrying balloons on South Korea last week, Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong, said the campaign was meant to carry out the North’s threat to conduct a tit-for-tat action against a South Korean leafleting.
Observers say North Korea was referring to Park’s previous balloon activities in May.
“We sent the truth and love, medicines, one-dollar bills and songs. But a barbaric Kim Jong-un sent us filth and garbage and he hasn’t made a word of apology over that,” Park said in a statement.
“Our group, the Fighters for Free North Korea, will keep sending our leaflets, which are the letters of truth and freedom for our beloved North Korean compatriots.”
North Korea’s balloon campaign was seen as an attempt to cause a divide in South Korea over its conservative government’s tough policy on the North.
South Korean officials say they have no legal grounds to ban private citizens from flying balloons to North Korea, after the country’s constitutional court last year struck down a law criminalising such leafleting as a violation of free speech.
In reaction to the North’s balloon campaign, South Korea fully suspended a 2018 tension-easing agreement with North Korea.
The suspension allows South Korea to restart live-firing exercises and anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas. — AP
