Balloons and leaflets threaten to intensify Korea border tension

A South Korean group launched hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon across the border into North Korea overnight despite repeated warnings from the North that it will retaliate against such actions.

Activist Park Sang-hak said his organisation floated 20 huge balloons carrying 500,000 leaflets, 2,000 onedollar bills and small books on North Korea from the border town of Paju on Monday night.

Mr Park, a former North Korean who fled to South Korea, said in a statement the leafleting was “a struggle for justice for the sake of liberation” of North Koreans.

The move is certain to intensify already high tensions between the Koreas. North Korea recently abruptly raised its rhetoric against South Korean civilian leafleting, destroying an empty, Seoulbuilt liaison office on its territory and pushing to resume its psychological warfare against the South.

Local officials in South Korea said they were looking into Mr Park’s account and may ask police to investigate it as a potential safety threat to front-line residents. Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, issued a separate statement expressing “deep regret” over Mr Park’s attempt to send leaflets. Calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “an evil” and his rule “barbarism”, Mr Park said he would keep sending anti-kim leaflets.

“Though North Korean residents have become modernday slaves with no basic rights, don’t they have the right to know the truth?” he said.

South Korean officials have vowed to ban leafleting and said they will press charges against Mr Park and other anti-north Korea activists for allegedly raising animosities and potentially endangering border residents.

In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire at propaganda balloons flying toward their territory, triggering an exchange of fire that caused no known casualties.

Mr Park accused South Korea’s government of sympathising with the North and caving in to its threats. Mr Park’s brother, also an activist, last week cancelled plans to release bottles filled with dried rice and face masks from a front-line island.

Gyeonggi province, which governs Paju, earlier issued an administrative order prohibiting activists from entering certain border areas including Paju to fly leaflets to the North.

If Mr Park’s leafleting is confirmed, a Gyeonggi official said the province would demand police investigate him. The penalty for violations is a year in prison and up to a 10 million won (£6,634) fine.

The provincial office said yesterday it had separately requested police investigate four activist groups, including Mr Park’s body.