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N. Korea repeats call for Seoul to block leaflet spread

All News 11:55 November 01, 2014

SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday reiterated its call for Seoul to stop the cross-border scattering of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets by South Korean activists for the improvement of inter-Korean ties.

The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, said that the South Korean government must prevent the activists from sending the leaflets to the North, adding that any inter-Korean dialogue is unlikely under the current situation.

The remarks came as the North rejected Seoul's offer to hold high-level talks, reiterating its protest against the leaflet campaign.

Activists in the South often send balloons with propaganda leaflets that condemn the autocratic North Korean regime, as well as U.S. dollar bills, attached across the border. The leaflets are mostly about the corruption and the abysmal human rights in the North.

The commentary came one day after a group of North Korean defectors sent such leaflets to the North in South Korea's northern city of Pocheon.

North Korea claimed that the practice is part of what it calls "hostile forces" of the United States' attempts to topple its regime, saying the Seoul government supports the activists behind the scenes.

"The scattering of leaflets is an act of war and if it continues to be carried out, there will be combats to crush such provocations," North Korea warned.

South Korean officials maintain that there is no legal basis to prohibit the campaign. When the activists flew anti-Pyongyang leaflets in mid-October, border guards of the two Koreas traded machine gun fire. Some North Korean rounds were later found to have landed near Paju, a South Korean border town.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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