Kim’s sister pops defectors’ balloons
South Korea is to ban activists from using balloons to send pamphlets into North Korea criticising Kim Jong Un after threats from his sister.
Officials in Seoul said yesterday the government would introduce legislation banning the balloons. North Korean defectors have also used balloons to send digital memory devices containing news programmes and propaganda films across the border.
The decision has been criticised by conservatives who claim it is a craven submission to the North by the Left-leaning government of President Moon Jae-in.
The proposed ruling followed an angry article in the North Korean state media by Kim Yo Jong, who has become increasingly outspoken and prominent this year.
‘‘Human scum little short of wild animals who betrayed their own homeland are engrossed in such unbecoming acts to imitate men,’’ she wrote on the Korean Central News Agency.
‘‘They are sure to be called mongrel dogs as they bark in where they should not. Now that the mongrel dogs are doing others harm, it is time to bring their owners to account.’’
Ms Kim said South Korea would ‘‘be forced to pay a dear price if they let this situation go on’’.
She warned that two join initiatives in the North, the Kaesong joint industrial zone and the Mount Kumgang holiday resort, could remain closed or be abandoned. A joint liaison office, closed during the coronavirus pandemic, could also be terminated.
‘‘Good faith and reconciliation can never go together with hostility and confrontation,’’ Ms Kim wrote. ‘‘So they had better do what they should do if they do not want to face the worst.’’
Defectors launch the hot air balloons periodically. They are intended to float across the border and deliver their contents on the far side, carried in bin bags.
Moon’s government regards them as an irritant and an obstacle in his attempts to engage diplomatically with Pyongyang, after two meetings with Kim Jong Un.
Officials told journalists in Seoul that the balloons did ‘‘more harm than good’’. They suggested that moves would be made to stop the defectors’ messages.
Yoh Sang-key, a spokesman for the ministry of unification, said most of the pamphlets failed to reach their intended targets. ‘‘Actually, most of the leaflets have been found in our territory, causing environmental pollution and increasing the burden on local people,’’ he said.
‘‘Any act that could pose a threat to the life and property of those people should be stopped. Taking into consideration relevant circumstances, the government has already been mulling effective measures to fundamentally prevent such tension-causing acts near the border.’’
Ms Kim, who is believed to be 32, has become one of the supreme leader’s closest advisers. Over the past few years she has been elevated to several important positions within the Workers’ Party, including a seat on the politburo.
She is the youngest child of the late Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s second supreme leader. Like her older brother, she was educated in Switzerland as well as Pyongyang.
She made few appearances in public until her father’s funeral in 2011, where she was seen standing close to his coffin. At first she was incorrectly identified as her brother’s wife.
Since then she has often appeared alongside her 36-year-old brother during his travels, providing ‘‘on-the-spot guidance’’. She is even seen by many as his potential successor. – The Times