South Korean activists launched tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea yesterday, amid heightened tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula, using a propaganda tool that usually sparks threats of reprisals.
Conservative activists, including many North Korean defectors, have been carrying out leafleting exercises using giant gas-filled balloons for years.
Defector-turned-activist Sanghak Park and his colleagues released 50,000 leaflets tied to three large balloons from an empty field near Paju City close to the border with North Korea, marking the sixth anniversary of the sinking of a South Korean warship with the loss of 46 sailors.
Photo: EPA
Seoul pinned the blame for the sinking on North Korea and froze trade and investment ties.
One of the three balloons was strung with a large banner printed with a Pyongyang-published picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un smiling against the backdrop of a missile being assembled.
“Bring down a firestorm on nuclear maniac Kim Jong-un,” the slogan read.
“We plan to launch a total of 10 million leaflets into the North over the next three months condemning North Korea’s nuclear tests,” Park told journalists.
In October 2014, North Korean frontier guards attempted to shoot down a set of such balloons, triggering a brief exchange of fire across the border.
Park and other activists face protests by residents and merchants living near the border, who are concerned that their livelihood might be affected.
Since North Korea’s fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, South Korea has resumed blasting a mix of K-pop and propaganda messages into North Korea, using giant banks of speakers on the heavily militarized border.
North Korea has responded by dropping its own leaflets over the border, attacking South Korean President Park Geun-hye and returning to psychological warfare methods used in the 1950s and 1960s.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese