The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned on Saturday that Seoul faced a “terrible disaster” if unmanned drones reach Pyongyang again, a day after accusing South Korea of launching such aircraft over the capital. Will have to.
North Korea said on Friday that the South had sent drones carrying propaganda leaflets into Pyongyang’s airspace on October 3 and again on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied the claim, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff later amended that position, saying in a statement that they “cannot confirm whether the North Korean allegations are true or not.” No.”
Kim Yo Jong, sister of Pyongyang’s leader and the regime’s chief spokeswoman, said Seoul’s refusal to confirm the allegations meant the drones were sent by “military gangsters”, referring to Seoul’s forces.
“The moment a ROK drone is once again found in the skies of our capital, it will surely cause a terrible disaster,” he said in a statement issued late Saturday, using the abbreviation of South Korea’s official name. ”
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that drones allegedly sent by the South had carried anti-regime propaganda and that the leaflets were full of “inflammatory rumors and nonsense”.
KCNA described the incident as a “gross violation of international law and a serious military attack.”
Despite official efforts to prevent them from doing so, South Korean activists have long released balloons carrying anti-Kim propaganda leaflets and other materials, including USB sticks containing K-pop and South Korean television dramas, which are critical of the North. There is a strategy. Opposed.
In response, the North – where the government is extremely sensitive about its people’s access to South Korean pop culture products – has launched more than 6,000 garbage-carrying balloons towards the South since May.
Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest level in years after a military agreement to ease tensions over ballooning incidents was completely suspended in June.
North Korean leader Kim recently said his country would use nuclear weapons “without hesitation” if South Korea attacked.
In 2022, five North Korean drones crossed into the South, the first such incident in five years, prompting the South Korean military to fire warning shots and deploy fighter jets.
The jets failed to shoot down any of the North Korean drones.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
