North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of sending drones to disperse “large numbers” of anti-North leaflets over its capital Pyongyang, which it described as a political and military provocation that could lead to armed conflict. Is.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the North’s allegations, but in its statement also mentioned Pyongyang’s practice of sending balloons with garbage bags into South Korean airspace.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said drones were flown over Pyongyang at night this week and last week and called for retaliation for the incursions, state news agency KCNA reported.
“The ROK (South Korea) should immediately stop such irresponsible and dangerous provocations that could lead to armed conflict and war between the two sides,” the ministry was quoted as saying.
In its statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it “cannot confirm the veracity of North Korea’s claims”, adding that “all responsibility for recent incidents” rests with Pyongyang.
It cited “disgusting, low-level and internationally shameful acts of filth and litter ballooning and other provocations.” It said more balloons were being sent on Friday.
North Korea has been flying thousands of balloons filled with garbage into the South since May, increasing tensions between the two countries.
Pyongyang says it is a response to some activists in South Korea and North Korean defectors who launch balloons into the North carrying aid parcels and leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong Un.
blurry images
KCNA distributed photos showing a blurry, triangular object labeled as a “drone” and another object being dropped as a “bundle of leaflets”. One image also showed a cloud of small objects labeled as “scattered leaflets”.
Another photo shows black, yellow and white leaflets comparing the South’s economic situation to the impoverished North and criticizing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by name.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying it needed to look into whether a private group had sent the leaflets to the North.
In December, five North Korean drones crossed into South Korea, prompting Seoul to attack and try to shoot down fighter planes and helicopters, the first such incursion since 2017.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 war ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and the North has long condemned defectors as “human scum”.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said there would be no further warnings and that the North would take immediate action if the South sent another drone into its territory.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
