North Korea threatened Sunday to unleash another military attack against Seoul if the latter refuses to suspend “psychological warfare” operations, as South Korean and the U.S. troops prepared to start annual joint military exercises on the peninsula.
The latest warning came a day before the commencement of the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle drills and follows a lawmaker’s revelation last week that the South Korean military had resumed sending propaganda leaflets to the North.
"The ongoing psychological warfare … is a treacherous deed and a wanton challenge to the demand of the times and desire of all the fellow countrymen to bring about a new phase … through all-round dialogue and negotiations," a North Korean military official told the regime’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
A defense official said the North warned of firing on South Korean facilities involved in "psychological warfare" in a “self-defense action,” unless the South suspends its propaganda campaign.
The threat came on the heels of remarks by Rep. Song Young-sun of the minor opposition Future Hope Alliance that the South Korean military began sending basic necessities and leaflets via balloons to the communist North in early February.
Citing a military report submitted to the National Assembly, lawmaker Song said Thursday that the South Korean military has purchased 620 million won ($550,000) worth of basic goods for the anti-North Korean government campaign.
She added that Seoul sent 100,000 “pieces of basic supplies,” including toiletries, gloves and instant food over the past month, and 3 million propaganda leaflets in balloons since late 2010.
Seoul had stopped sending supplies in balloons to the North since 2000 and other types of psychological warfare had been suspended between the two Koreas for years under a 2004 agreement.
In May last year, the North threatened to fire at South Korean loudspeakers along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and destroy them, if Seoul resumed propaganda broadcasting.
Also on Sunday, North Korean representatives at Panmunjeom, the inter-Korean border village, reiterated their usual threat against the joint war games, which will begin today.
The North Korean officials said their armed forces would launch "an all-out war of unprecedented scale" and turn Seoul into "a sea of fire" if the South and the U.S. "invaders" provoked Pyongyang with the threat of war.
北, "심리전 발원지 조준사격" 경고
북한은 27일 키 리졸브ㆍ독수리 한ㆍ미합동군사훈련을 하루 앞두고 우리군이 대북전단 및 물품 살포에 맞서 한국에 대한 추가 도발을 하겠다고 위협을 했다.
국회 국방위원회 소속 미래희망연대 송영선 의원은 지난 주 우리 군이 북한에 식료품과 전단을 북한 지역으로 날려보내는 심리전을 재개했다 밝힌 바 있다.
남북 장성급 군사회담 북측 단장이 남측에 “심리전 행위가 계속된다면 임진각을 비롯한 반공화국 심리모략 행위의 발원지에 대한 우리 군대의 직접 조준격파사격이 자위권 수호의 원칙에서 단행될 것”이라는 내용의 통지문을 보냈다고 조선중앙통신이 밝혔다.
중앙통신은 “최근 전연일대에서 감행되는 괴뢰군부의 심리전 행위는 전면적인 대화와 협상으로 평화통일과 민족번영의 새로운 국면을 열어나가려는 온 겨레의 지향과 시대의 요구에 대한 전면 역행이며 반민족적 역적 행위”라는 통지문 내용을 전했다.
송영선 의원은 24일 국방부로부터 보고받아 제시한 '대북 심리전 현황'을 인용, 군이 2000년 이후 11년만에 북한에 대한 생필품 살포를 재개해 이달 초부터 햇반·라디오·의약품 등 물품 1만여점을 북한에 살포했다 밝혔다.
송위원에 의하면 군은 지난해 말부터 대북심리전의 일환으로 6억2000만원 상당의 물품을 구입했다.
