North Korea issues final warning over South's propaganda balloons
6:39 PM EDT, July 16, 2024
The sister of Kim Jong Un, the dictator of North Korea, issued a final warning to the authorities of the neighboring country. The influential regime representative declared that another balloon deployment from South Korea would be met with a response from Pyongyang.
The North Korean agency KCNA conveyed warnings issued by Kim Yo Jong on Tuesday. The message from Kim Jong Un's sister is intended to frighten Seoul and end the South's propaganda activities.
According to KCNA, balloons carried by the wind across the buffer zone at the border of the two countries, reaching the North's residents, contain dangerous loads. The attached bags are packed with propaganda leaflets. They contain content aimed against the authorities in Pyongyang.
"The situation seems to be unacceptable. I am reissuing a stern warning," the agency quoted Kim Yo Jong. She also stated that the balloons cause "inconveniences for the residents."
Tuesday's warnings are yet another attempt to deal with this irritating regime activity. On Sunday, Kim Yo Jong promised that South Korea would pay a "very high price" for these leaflets.
They were reportedly discovered in 17 locations in the border region.
Balloons with support and humanitarian aid
Representatives of the Korean regime have long been addressing these balloon deployments. Until now, however, the talks mostly mentioned "trash" and "filth" sent by the neighbor into North Korea's territory.
No one mentions what the packages prepared by South Korean activists actually contain. It is humanitarian aid. The bags attached to the balloons are packed not only with leaflets containing words of support and encouragement but also with food, medicines, and DVDs of South Korean TV series.
Pyongyang has already conducted several "retaliatory actions." More than two thousand balloons carrying scrap paper, worn clothing, and soil containing traces of human feces and parasites have been sent across the border.
"I once again emphasize that the entire responsibility rests on North Korea if South Korean citizens suffer any harm because of the trash-carrying balloons from the North," said the spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Col. Lee Sung-jun, on Monday Eastern Time.