This undated photo, provided by the Fighters for a Free North Korea, a North Korean defectors’ group, shows plastic balloons carrying leaflets critical of the North Korean regime that the group was sending to the North in Paju, a city near the inter-Korean border. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jun. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – A North Korean defectors’ group said Monday it could consider temporarily halting the scattering of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border if the North’s leader Kim Jong-un apologizes for the sending of trash-carrying balloons to South Korea.
Since Tuesday, North Korea has sent nearly 1,000 balloons carrying trash to the South in what it called a “tit-for-tat” action against Seoul activists’ leaflet campaigns.
Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK), said there is basically no change in his stance that the group will resume the leaflet operations if winds blow in a northern direction.
“But we can consider temporarily stopping (the sending of the leaflets) if Kim Jong-un politely apologizes for letting South Koreans be hit with trash,” he said.
The FFNK and other North Korean defectors’ groups in South Korea have sent big plastic balloons carrying propaganda leaflets and USB sticks loaded with K-pop and drama content over the North in what they say is aimed at freeing North Korean people from the North Korean regime with outside information.
South Korea said Sunday it will not rule out the option to switch on loudspeaker broadcasting along the border as part of its “unendurable” responses to Pyongyang following the North’s latest balloon operations and GPS jamming attacks.
Hours after Seoul’s warning, North Korea said it will temporarily stop flying trash-carrying balloons to the South but also threatened to resume sending them if the South scatters anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
In September, the Constitutional Court ruled that a clause banning leaflet launches in the act on the development of inter-Korean relations is unconstitutional, saying it excessively restricts the right to freedom of expression.
(Yonhap)
