DPRK warns ROK it will scatter millions of leaflets

PYONGYANG－The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will soon scatter 12 million leaflets in the Republic of Korea "to make them pay dearly for their crimes", the official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported on Monday.

"As of June 22, equipment and various means of scattering leaflets, including over 3,000 balloons of various types capable of carrying leaflets deep inside South Korea, have been prepared," and 12 million leaflets of all kinds have been printed, the report said.

"The preparations for the largest-ever distribution of leaflets ... are almost complete," the report said, adding that "the time for retaliatory punishment is drawing near".

Meanwhile, the DPRK has been reinstalling loudspeakers in areas near the border with the ROK. An unnamed ROK military source was quoted as saying that the DPRK had been setting up loudspeakers along the inter-Korean frontline areas since Sunday afternoon.

Both the Koreas used to regularly scatter leaflets on the other side, but agreed to stop such activities－including loudspeaker broadcasts along the frontier－in the Panmunjom Declaration that ROK President Moon Jae-in and DPRK top leader Kim Jong-un signed at their first summit in 2018.

Communications cut off

Recently, Pyongyang cut off all communication lines with Seoul and blew up the liaison office building near the border with the ROK in protest against the scattering of anti-Pyongyang leaflets usually attached to balloons by defectors and other activists in the ROK.

In a commentary this month, the KCNA described the leaflet-scattering as "undisguised psychological warfare" and "a preemptive attack that precedes a war".

One of the DPRK leaflets, which was published in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, carried an image of Moon drinking from a cup and accused him of having "eaten it all, including the north-south Korea agreement".

The ROK Unification Ministry said in a statement that it was sorry that the DPRK had announced its plan to scatter anti-ROK leaflets, calling on Pyongyang to immediately drop the idea.

The ministry said such acts were in a clear violation of inter-Korean agreements and worsened matters rather than resolved them, noting that such acts would be of no help to find peace on the Korean Peninsula and develop inter-Korean relations.

It noted that the ROK government had clamped down on the scattering of anti-DPRK leaflets in the border areas, calling on DPRK to prevent any act that aggravated the situation.

A ROK activist recently said he would drop about a million leaflets over the border around Thursday, the 70th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War. ROK officials have said they would ban civilian activists from launching balloons toward the DPRK.

Inter-Korean relations have been in a deep freeze following the collapse of a summit in Hanoi between Kim and US President Donald Trump early last year over what the DPRK would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions.

The DPRK's latest declarations come after Kim Yeon-chul, the ROK's point man for relations with Pyongyang, resigned as unification minister over the heightened tensions, expressing hope that his departure "will be a chance to pause for a bit".

Xinhua - Agencies