SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea will face “devastating consequences” for distributing anti-Pyongyang leaflets across North Korea, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday, citing North Korea's leader Kim Yo Jong. Kim Jong-un's mighty sister.
Kim said at least 29 large balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets from South Korea were found in North Korea, leading to a blockade of the areas and causing inconvenience to residents.
Tensions rose last month after North Korea sent thousands of balloons filled with garbage into the South in protest at a campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in the South who have been smuggling aid packages and leaflets critical of the Kim regime across the heavily fortified border for years.
Kim said Pyongyang might respond differently if the “petty and filthy” behavior of what she called “human scum” continues, but she did not elaborate.
“The situation seemed to become unacceptable. I warn you once again,” she said in a statement carried by KCNA. “You will face devastating and terrible consequences.”
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Lincoln Feast.)
