Pyongyang scatters one million propaganda leaflets across border condemning South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye
PUBLISHED : Monday, 18 January, 2016, 4:16pm
UPDATED : Monday, 18 January, 2016, 4:18pm
Associated Press in Seoul
Propaganda leaflets condemning South Korean President Park Geun-hye, were found in the border city of Paju near the Demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas. Photo: AFP
North Korea has launched an estimated one million propaganda leaflets by balloon into South Korea amid increased tension between the rivals following the North’s recent nuclear test, Seoul officials said on Monday.
A cold war-style stand-off flared since the North’s claim on January 6 that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. South Korea resumed blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers. North Korea quickly responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and floating the balloons over the border carrying anti-South leaflets, according to Seoul officials.
Seoul’s Defence Ministry said on Monday the North’s military has been sending the balloons on a near-daily basis. Spokesman Kim Min-seok said the leaflets have reached Seoul in addition to areas close to the border.
Such leafleting by the North is rare, as the two Koreas officially stopped psychological warfare as part of tension-reduction measures in 2004. South Korean activists have still occasionally sent propaganda balloons toward the North, triggering angry responses from the North.
South Korean soldiers searching for suspected North Korean leaflets. Photo: AFP
South Korean officials believe their broadcasts will sting in the rigidly controlled, authoritarian country by demoralising frontline troops and residents. There are doubts in Seoul that the North Korean leaflets can have any affect people in more affluent South Korea.
Many foreign governments and analysts remain highly sceptical about the H-bomb claim, but whatever the North detonated underground will likely push the country closer toward a fully functional nuclear arsenal, which it still is not thought to have. The North previously conducted atomic bomb tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
South Korea, the US and other countries are pushing hard to get North Korea punished over the bomb test. Soon after the test, diplomats at a UN Security Council pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions on the North. But it’s unclear whether China, the North’s last major ally and a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, would cooperate on any tough sanctions that could force a change in the North.
The two Koreas share the world’s most heavily fortified border since their war in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea as deterrence against North Korea.
