Seoul, June 23 A group of North Korean defectors in the South on Tuesday claimed that it has sent more anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border overnight from the western border city of Paju.
Police said one of the balloons used for sending the leaflets was found in a town in the mountainous eastern province of Gangwon, reports Yonhap News Agency.
"(We) sent anti-North Korea leaflets over (to the North) between 11 p.m. and midnight on Monday (from a town) in Paju," Park Sang-hak, chief of Fighters for a Free North Korea, said.
According to Park, six members of the group, which has been active in anti-North Korea leafleting, sent to the North around 500,000 leaflets carried by 20 large helium balloons.
Some 500 pamphlets depicting South Korea's success story, 2,000 $1 bills and 1,000 SD cards were also flown to the North, along with the leaflets, he said.
At least one of the balloons, flown by defectors in South Korea on Monday, was found on a hill in Hongcheon, a South Korean county located nearly 100 kilometers southeast of Paju, on Tuesday morning, police said.
An image of the balloon showed that it was carrying images of North Korea's ruling Kim family members, including the current leader Kim Jong-un and his younger sister Yo-jong, as well as bundles of leaflets, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The South Korean Unification Ministry called for a halt to such leaflet campaigns.
"Leaflets, whether from the North or the South, do no good for inter-Korean relations, and the two leaders agreed in the Panmunjom Declaration to stop the leafleting," a Ministry official said, referring to a 2018 summit agreement between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Taking issue with such leafleting campaigns in the South, North Korea made a series of inflammatory remarks toward South Korea and President Moon Jae-in in recent weeks.
Early Monday, the North's state media also threatened to send around 12 million propaganda leaflets to South Korea in retaliation against South Korea's "failure" to stop anti-North leaflet campaigns here.
( With inputs from IANS )