Defector group sends leaflets into North Korea

The Fighters for a Free North Korea said it sent 20 balloons filled with leaflets into North Korea Thursday night.

The Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK), an activist group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, sends balldons containing anti-regime leaflets across the border on Thursday night. [FIGHTERS FOR A FREE NORTH KOREA]

A North Korean defectors’ group said Friday that it sent additional anti-regime leaflets across the border the previous night, raising concerns in Seoul that Pyongyang may resume sending balloons filled with filth in retaliation.

Twenty large balloons carrying leaflets were launched from Paju, Gyeonggi, between 9 and 10 p.m. on Thursday, according to the Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK), an activist group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak.

The leaflets said "the beautiful land of Korea, the only homeland ‘Korea’ with 80 million people, loves North Koreans.”

Also attached were USB drives containing the popular South Korean drama "Winter Sonata,” music by singers Lim Young-woong and Na Hoon-A and one dollar bills.

The FFNK head said he would continue sending these “letters of love, freedom and truth” until North Korean leader Kim Jong-un apologizes for sending balloons filled with waste to the South.

Paju civil servants appeared at the site following the first round of leafleting activities after receiving reports. The Paju city government took steps to prevent further distribution.

The latest leafleting campaign comes in the wake of Pyongyang's recent launch of around 1,000 balloons filled with trash to South Korea, which it described as a response to anti-Pyongyang leafleting.

FFNK has sent propaganda leaflets critical of the North Korean regime twice this year, on May 10 and June 6. Other leaflets were sent by the North Korea People's Liberation Front, a paramilitary group composed of former North Korean soldiers aiming to overthrow Kim's regime, on June 7.

From May 28 to June 9, North Korea sent balloons filled with filth and threatened to send "several tens of times the amount of filth" in response to further leafleting from the South.

In response to North Korea's actions, the South Korean government resumed loudspeaker broadcasts on June 9 after a six-year hiatus, but deactivated them following North Korea's announcement of a temporary suspension of the balloons.

Some analysts suggest that North Korea's restrained retaliatory actions may have been an attempt to manage tensions between the two Koreas ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the North.

On Wednesday, Putin and Kim signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement during a summit in Pyongyang.

It remains to be seen if the Russian leader's departure will trigger North Korea to resume sending balloons.

BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]