SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un On Sunday, it vowed to respond to what it called a new South Korean civilian leaflet campaign, saying North Korea would soon resume Balloons loaded with garbage fly across the border.
Since late May, North Korea has Many balloons were released. They carried discarded paper, pieces of cloth, cigarette butts and even fertilizer toward South Korea in a series of late-night launch events, saying it was an act of retaliation against South Korean activists post political posts via their own balloons. No hazardous materials were found. South Korea responded with Suspension of the 2018 de-escalation agreement With North Korea, live-fire exercises resumed in border areas.
In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong said “filthy leaflets and things from scum (South Koreans)” were again found at the border and other areas of North Korea on Sunday morning.
“Despite repeated warnings from North Korea, the South Korean scum did not stop this crude and dirty play,” she said.
“We have fully taken our countermeasures in such a situation. The (South Korean) clans will get tired of suffering bitter embarrassment and should be prepared to pay a very heavy price for their dirty game,” Kim Yo Jong said.
North Korea last sent balloons loaded with trash to South Korea in late July. It was not immediately clear whether the balloons had been sent to North Korea recently, or by which activist group in South Korea. For years, groups led by North Korean defectors have flown giant balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets, USB drives containing Korean pop songs and South Korean dramas, and U.S. dollar banknotes toward North Korea.
Experts say North Korea views the balloon campaigns as a dangerous provocation that could threaten its leadership because it blocks official access to foreign news for most of its 26 million people.
On June 9, South Korea redeployed its troops. Giant speakers Along the border for the first time in six years, and resumed broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda.
South Korean officials said they were not preventing activists from sending leaflets to North Korea, in line with a 2023 Constitutional Court ruling that struck down a controversial law criminalizing such leaflets, calling it a violation of freedom of expression.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement came a day after North Korea’s defence ministry threatened to bolster its nuclear capabilities and make the United States and South Korea pay an “unimaginably heavy price” as it lashed out at its rivals. New defensive guidelines She says she reveals an intention to invade the North.