Leaflets Lead to NK Lash Out

North Korea has upped the ante in its protest against
cross-border leaflets sent from South Korea, through its propaganda website
“Uriminzokkiri,” operated by the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful
Reunification of the Fatherland. In an interview with a high-level North Korean official, published on Monday, it said, “[The leaflets] are considered a grave
provocation, and the evasion of responsibility South Korea has demonstrated
towards this ‘anti-North balloon strategy’ is shameless to the extreme.”

It contested that if the South “truly wants to mend ties and
improve inter-Korean relations, it must immediately halt such confrontational
brotherhood tactics that have gone to the extreme in this leaflet strategy.”

Prior to the event, the North reported, “Our military sees
this leaflet scattering act as a war-provoking act, and we shall mercilessly
crush the source of provocation and forces behind this operation,” adding that
these threats would not  “simply be
a warning.” Despite these threats, the defector-led Fighters for Free North
Korea released 200,000 leaflets, encased in helium-filled balloons, condemning
the North Korean regime from a site in Paju, north of Seoul.

North Korea also sent official notice before the event to the
Blue House National Security Office, as well as the Unification Ministry
demanding that the leaflet activities be stopped. The South’s response that
there is no legal basis to stop the exercises elicited more criticism from
North Korea.

“Saying they cannot halt those actions due to the
characteristics of the system and ‘basic rights’ of sorts, is nothing but
despicable trickery,” the report stated. “It is illogical to claim the
operation is ‘beyond control’ because of basic rights such as freedom of
expression, when the issue of these leaflets is something that should follow a
mutual agreement in place.”

Referencing the controversial National Security Law in South
Korea, the report rebuked the explanation of “freedom of expression” as license
for the leaflet movement to continue. It said, “So this freedom of expression
they speak of ensures that if anyone praises North Korea, they are wrongfully
prosecuted for anti-state crimes and suffer indiscriminate persecution and
imprisonment, labeled as a ‘force that benefits the enemy’?”

The report went on, “Speaking ill of and criticizing our
highest leadership and system with evil bad mouthing through these consistent
cross-border leaflets is the gravest act of hostility that obstructs
inter-Korean relations and peace and unity in the nation.” It also laid out
demands “that we halt all criticism and slander against each other in our first
high-level inter-Korean meeting.”

“This is where we exit from trying to mend North-South
ties,” the report declared. “We shall keep a close eye on how [the South]
handles the latest anti-North leaflet operation that took place on Sunday in
Paju, Gyeonggi Province.”

There is speculation that the North will use the activity as
evidence of culpability on the part of the South for the aggravation and deterioration
of relations between the Koreas. Experts assert that North Korea will employ this
as a strategy in an attempt to gain the upper hand in inter-Korean relations by
rejecting South Korea’s recent proposal to resume high-level talks aimed at discussing
pending bilateral issues.