South Korean activists, most of whom are North Korean escapees, prepare to release balloons carrying leaflets and a banner condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a rally in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016.
When South Korean balloon-lifted leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un recently landed next to a high school close to North Korea’s border with China, security agents mustered teachers, students and soldiers to bury the fliers -- then made them all pledge to keep the incident as a state secret, according to sources in the region.
Launching anti-Kim leaflets into the North by helium balloon across the Demilitarized Zone from South Korea has been a tactic of Pyongyang opponents and human rights groups in the South for decades, but North Korea recently decided to make the fliers a main point of contention in inter-Korean relations.
On Tuesday North Korea destroyed a landmark liaison office with South Korea in a “terrific explosion” -- days after the country said it was cutting all communications with Seoul over the anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
Many experts believe that the leaflet drops are merely an excuse that North Korea is using to ratchet up pressure on Seoul and Washington in a renewed drive to gain concessions in stalled denuclearization negotiations. Pyongyang seeks relief from sanctions aimed at depriving it of resources and cash for illicit weapons programs.
The balloon landing last month near a high school in the border province of Ryanggang, however, showed that authorities in North Korea still take the spread of the leaflets as a...
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