Activists launch balloons carrying leaflets into North despite threats

A human rights group said Thursday it launched 10 balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border in a move that could cause the North to resume flying trash-laden balloons into the South.

Activists from Fighters for a Free North Korea hold up balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang leaflets, USB sticks and U.S. dollars before launching them into the North from an undisclosed site in Pocheon, northern Gyeonggi, on Thursday. [YONHAP]

A human rights group said Thursday it launched 10 balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border in a move that could cause the North to resume flying trash-laden balloons into the South.

According to Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, the balloons were launched between midnight and 1 a.m. from Pocheon, Gyeonggi, located about 15 miles from the heavily guarded demilitarized zone that divides the peninsula.

Park said the balloons were collectively filled with 2,000 one-dollar bills, 5,000 USB sticks containing South Korean entertainment and 200,000 flyers criticizing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for calling the South his regime’s “unchanging enemy.”

The North, which maintains a tight information cordon to seal its people from outside views, has previously called Park “an unrivaled piece of human scum” for his group’s leafleting activities.

A South Korean military official confirmed that some of the group’s balloons had entered the North but also said the regime had not yet shown signs that it is preparing to retaliate.

In a statement released by Pyongyang’s state media on May 28, North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il cited previous anti-regime leaflets flown over the border by defectors as the North’s primary motivation for undertaking a “tit-for-tat” action by scattering “mounds of wastepaper and filth” across the South.

Kim announced a halt to the trash balloon launches on Sunday, hours after the South Korean government warned it would mount an “unendurable” response against the North.

But he warned that if activists continue sending anti-Pyongyang flyers over the border, the regime would send garbage “a hundred times” the number of leaflets that make their way into the North.

Although Kim said the North launched 3,500 balloons carrying a total of 15 tons of garbage into the South between May 28 and Sunday, South Korean officials have given a lower estimate of almost 1,000 balloons based on reports filed by witnesses and people living near landing sites across the country.

No casualties were reported in relation to the North Korean balloons or their packages, but one balloon damaged the windshield of a passenger car upon crashing down in a residential area of Ansan, Gyeonggi, on Sunday, according to local police.

The balloons also disrupted operations in commercial areas and agricultural activity in farmlands nationwide by forcing local authorities to restrict access to their landing sites.

In a statement released after his group’s balloon launch, Park said that Fighters for a Free North Korea “will keep sending letters of truth and freedom to our beloved North Korean compatriots” and criticized Kim Jong-un for sending “filth and garbage” to the South.

The South Korean government has declined to stop private citizens from flying balloons into the North after the Constitutional Court last year struck down a law that banned leaflet launches as a violation of freedom of expression.

However, residents living along the southern side of the inter-Korean border have called on the Yoon administration to stop activists' balloon launches, calling them a threat to public safety and security.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]