The sister of North Korea’s leader warned Seoul there would be “a gruesome” price to pay over anti-Pyongyang leaflets floated across the border, indicating her country may raise the stakes after sending trash-laden balloons to South Korea.
“We give the scum a stern warning again,” Kim Yo-jong was quoted by official media as saying. “They should be ready for paying a gruesome and dear price,” the Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday.
Kim Jong-un’s younger sister has been the face of pressure campaigns against South Korea and the US. Her threats have at times been followed by action from Pyongyang, which has sent more than 2,000 balloons carrying trash across the border since late May to show its anger at actions by the South Korean government and activist groups.
For decades, the activist groups – many staffed by North Korean defectors who have settled in South Korea – have floated balloons carrying leaflets denouncing the Kim family that has ruled North Korea since its founding.
Batches of balloons have also carried US dollar bills, bags of rice and USB sticks with K-pop music to entice North Koreans to pick up the contents.
Yo-jong said more balloons were found yesterday that were sent from the South Korean side and contained leaflets. The contents were rounded up by a specialised agency and incinerated, KCNA said.
Authorities in Seoul said last month that parasites associated with fecal matter have been found in the trash-laden balloons from North Korea, along with clothing such as underwear, neckties and socks.
Tensions along the border where the two countries have positioned hundreds of thousands of troops have been on the rise for the past several weeks, increasing worries about an incident that could escalate. — Bloomberg
