Top Stories 24/06/03 N. Korean defectors to match Pyongyang’s ‘balloon’ provocation

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N. Korean defectors to match Pyongyang’s ‘balloon’ provocation

Fighters for a Free North Korea intends to send leaflets and digital copies of popular South Korean songs on June 6

Unidentified objects believed to be North Korean trash from balloons that crossed the inter-Korea border on a street in Seoul on June 1. (Photo: AFP)

By UCA News reporter

Published: June 03, 2024 11:55 AM GMT

Updated: June 03, 2024 11:56 AM GMT

A Seoul-based North Korean defectors' group has announced their plans to send balloons carrying leaflets and digital copies of popular South Korean songs in retaliation to Pyongyang sending balloons loaded with waste into the South.

The civic group Fighters for a Free North Korea said that it plans to send 200,000 leaflets and 5,000 USB drives containing Korean dramas and songs of Lim Young-woong, a popular South Korean singer, the Korea Herald reported on June 3.

Last week, North Korea sent hundreds of balloons with trash and animal feces to South Korea, threatening to send more if balloons carrying South Korean leaflets entered its territory again.

Park Sang-hak, the leader of the group who defected from North Korea in 1998, said the group will send the leaflets and USB drives on June 6, which is South Korean Memorial Day.

"[North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un sent South Korean people garbage, but us defectors will send love and truth to our compatriots up north," Park said.

The defector group called North Korea’s recent move "an embarrassing form of threat and blackmail," and said it would consider not sending the leaflets if Kim apologizes for the garbage balloons.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang on June 1 had said that it would stop sending the trash-filled balloons across the border but warned that the operation would resume if Seoul sent any more of the leaflets carrying negative messages toward the Kim regime, the Korea Herald reported.

Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's sister and one of Pyongyang's key spokespeople, mocked South Korea for complaining about the balloons last week, saying North Koreans were simply exercising their freedom of expression‎.

In the past, South Korea has broadcast anti-Kim propaganda into the North, which infuriates Pyongyang, AFP reported.

The defector groups’ activism has been a reason for debate in South Korea, the Korea Herald reported.

In October 2014, Park's group sent a balloon full of leaflets toward the North from a border area in Paju, some 40 kilometers northwest of Seoul.

North Korean soldiers at the border responded by shooting at the balloons, while South Korean soldiers shot back in retaliation. No damage, injuries, or loss of lives were reported from both sides following the incident.

The defector group arrived two weeks later at the same location to send more leaflets.

The move infuriated Paju residents who complained that the defector group’s activism was endangering their lives and livelihood.

The release of balloons to North Korea was banned by the Moon Jae-in administration after it took office in 2017.

In an old interview, Thae Yong-ho -- a South Korean lawmaker who defected from the North in 2017 – had said that he opposes "some organizations" publicly sending the leaflets, saying such operations should be conducted discreetly.

The two Koreas' propaganda offensives have sometimes escalated into larger tit-for-tats, AFP reported.

In June 2020, North Korea unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links with South Korea and blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border.