Seoul, South Korea. The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed Sunday to respond to what she called a new South Korean civilian leaflet distribution campaign, indicating that North Korea would soon resume. fly balloons with garbage across the border.
Since late May, North Korea has numerous balloons floated carrying waste paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even dung into South Korea in a series of late-night drop events, saying they were a tit-for-tat action against South Korean activists handing out political leaflets through their own balloons. No hazardous materials have been found. South Korea responded suspend a 2018 de-escalation agreement with North Korea and resumed live-fire exercises in border areas.
In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong said that “dirty leaflets and scum (from South Korea)” were again found on Sunday morning at the border and other areas of North Korea.
“Despite repeated warnings from (North Korea), the (South Korean) scum are not stopping this crude and dirty game,” he said.
“We have fully introduced our countermeasure in such a situation. “The (South Korean) clans will be tired of suffering bitter shame and must be prepared to pay a very high price for their foul play,” Kim Yo Jong said.
The last time North Korea sent garbage balloons toward South Korea was in late July. It was not immediately known if and from which activist group in South Korea balloons were sent to North Korea recently. For years, groups led by North Korean defectors have floated huge balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets, USB flash drives containing K-pop songs and South Korean dramas, and US dollar bills to North Korea.
Experts say North Korea views such balloon campaigns as a serious provocation that could threaten its leadership because it bars most of its 26 million people from official access to foreign news.
On June 9, South Korea redeployed giant speakers along the border for the first time in six years, and resumed anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts.
South Korean officials say they do not restrict activists from sending leaflets to North Korea, in line with a 2023 constitutional court ruling that struck down a controversial law that criminalized such leaflets, calling them a violation of free speech.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement came a day after North Korea’s Defense Ministry threatened to strengthen its nuclear capabilities and make the United States and South Korea pay “an unimaginably harsh price” by attacking their rivals. new defense guidelines which claims to reveal an intention to invade the North.
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