North Korea calls anti-government leaflet drop 'grave provocation'

Kwon Hyo-jin for Daily NK, part of the North Korea network-Thursday 25 September 2014

Pyongyang lashed out after activists in the South launched the latest set of balloons carrying anti-regime pamphlets across the border. DailyNK reports

A defector-led group released helium balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang leaflets near the North Korean border at the weekend. Photograph: Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images

North Korea has condemned the launch of the latest batch of anti-government leaflets sent by activists across the border by balloon from South Korea, warning that it could be a reason for Pyongyang to “exit from trying to mend North-South ties”.

Uriminzokkiri, a China-based website with close links to Pyongyang,published an interview with a leading official who said that the leaflets “are considered a grave provocation” and “the evasion of responsibility South Korea has demonstrated towards this ‘anti-North balloon strategy’ is shameless to the extreme.”

If South Korea “truly wants to mend ties and improve inter-Korean relations, it must immediately halt such confrontational brotherhood tactics,” the unnamed official said.

Over the weekend the defector-led Fighters for Free North Korea group released 200,000 leaflets condemning the regime. Encased in helium-buoyed balloons, they were launched from the town of Paju, north of Seoul, with the aim of reaching citizens in the North.

In July, South Korean activists launched balloons carrying thousands ofChoco Pies across the border. The popular snack had been previously banned by Pyongyang as symbol of capitalism.

North Korea has previously lodged complaints to the South’s National Security Office and the Ministry of Unification demanding that leaflet activities be stopped. The South maintains that there is no legal basis to stop the exercises.

In the past, the North said its military considered a leaflet drop “as a war-provoking act” and that they would “mercilessly crush the source of provocation and forces behind this operation”. Pyongyang insists these are not empty threats, but activists remain unperturbed and continue to organise further drops.

The leaflets adorned with pictures of Kim Jong-un were not the first anti-DPRK materials to be floated across the border. Photograph: Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images

Responding to the Paju launch, the North rejected the South’s insistence that freedom of expression is enshrined in its National Security Law, and accused Seoul of being hypocritical: “this freedom of expression they speak of ensures that if anyone praises North Korea, they are wrongfully prosecuted for anti-state crimes and suffer indiscriminate persecution and imprisonment.”

They added that: “speaking ill of and criticising our highest leadership and system with evil bad mouthing through these consistent cross-border leaflets is the gravest act of hostility that obstructs inter-Korean relations and peace and unity in the nation”.

They also suggest that the two countries “halt all criticism and slander against each other in our first high-level inter-Korean meeting”, which was proposed by the South in August.

The North is yet to officially accept the offer. Pyongyang has said it will keep a close eye on how the South responded to it’s demands over the leaflet issue, warning that it could be a reason to “exit from trying to mend North-South ties”.

North and South Korea are still technically at war; a peace treaty was never signed to formally end the 1950 to 1953 Korean conflict andtensions remain high.

A version of this article first appeared on DailyNK