A group of North Korea defectors scattered leaflets critical of the North Korean regime across the border to the North on Saturday despite the government's recommendation not to.
Six members of the Fighters for a Free North Korea flew five big plastic balloons at around 12:30 a.m. from the border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province. The balloons sent across the border to the North Korean side were carrying 150,000 leaflets criticizing North Korea, as well as other gifts like United States dollar bills and USBs, Park Sang-hak, the head of the defectors' group said.
Anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent toward North Korea by North Korean defector group is seen in this photo on Saturday. (Yonhap)
Banners were also tied to the balloons, reading “Do not be fooled by Kim Jong-un's fake dialogue offer, disguised peace offensive.”
“Defectors ’leaflets to North Korea, which are intended to tell the facts and truth to some 20 million North Korean people, will never by stopped by any form of blockade or physical means,” Park noted.
The defectors group tried to fly the anti-North leaflets a week earlier but failed to do so when they were stopped by police and local residents.
The government has repeatedly advised the Fighters for a Free North Korea, as well as other groups that send leaflets to North Korea, against such activity.
“Spreading of anti-North leaflets runs against the spirit of the inter-Korean agreements under the Panmunjom Declaration agreed upon between the leaders of the two countries,” the Unification Ministry has told the groups, urging them to stop the activities.
The declaration was jointly adopted on April 27 by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, when they committed to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and replace the inter-Korean armistice with a peace treaty. (Yonhap)