Balloon war escalates as South Korea sends propaganda leaflets and K-pop songs to North Korea

A South Korean activists’ group said on Thursday that balloons carrying propaganda leaflets have been sent to North Korea after the North sent trash-filled ones over the border last week.

The activist group, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, launched 10 balloons holding some 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets which were critical of Kim Jong Un.

The balloons also carried USB sticks with a number of K-Pop songs and South Korean dramas - and even US one-dollar bills.

The group claimed it was a display of “love” as opposed to Pyongyang’s recent balloon barrage, which led some carrying trash and excrement to be flown into the South, increasing bilateral tensions.

The act prompted South Korea to react by announcing the suspension of its 2018 inter-Korean agreement on Tuesday. The deal with the North was initially created to lower frontline military tensions.

Although North Korea has claimed to have “halted” its flights of rubbish-carrying balloons, it threatened to resume them if South Korean activists sent leaflets again.

The propaganda leaflets have already provoked furious protests from the North over the retaliation, and over Park’s involvement in particular. The North’s state media has previously referred to him as “human scum without an equal in the world.”

Of the South’s balloon launch, Park said in a statement: “We sent the truth and love, medicines, one-dollar bills and songs. But a barbaric Kim Jong Un sent us filth and garbage and he hasn’t made a word of apology over that.

“Our group, the Fighters for Free North Korea, will keep sending our leaflets, which are the letters of truth and freedom for our beloved North Korean compatriots.”