International News

PAJU, South Korea, (APP/AFP) – South
Korean activists launched tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea on Saturday, amid heightened tensions on the divided peninsula, using a propaganda tool that usually sparks threats of reprisals.
Conservative activists, including many North Korean defectors, have
been carrying out leafleting exercises using giant gas-filled balloons for years.
Defector-turned-activist Park Sang-Hak and his colleagues released
50,000 leaflets tied to three large balloons from an empty field near Paju City close to the border with North Korea, marking the sixth anniversary of the sinking of a South Korean warship with the loss of 46 sailors.
Seoul pinned the blame for the sinking on the North and froze trade
and investment ties.
One of the three balloons was strung with a large banner printed with
a Pyongyang-published picture of leader Kim Jong-Un smiling against the backdrop of a missile being assembled.