By Rachel Lee
The South Korean military plans to resume sending propaganda leaflets using balloons to North Korea soon after a 12-year hiatus, a defense official said Friday.
The move comes after the North Korean military dropped an estimated one million leaflets into the South last month condemning President Park Geun-hye and the ruling Saenuri Party.
The South Korean military stopped sending leaflets in 2004, and only civic activists have since been allowed to do it.
“North Korea has been continuously slandering the President, and we will not take it anymore,” the official said. “The Ministry of National Defense is preparing propaganda leaflets to inform people in North Korea about what is happening outside their country.”
Sending leaflets will be resumed as soon as the wind shifts from north-to-south to south-to-north, the official said.
“The leaflets will explain the absurdity of the North Koran leader Kim Jong-un and his regime,” the official said.
Seoul resumed loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts on Jan. 8 in response to Pyongyang’s claim to have tested a hydrogen bomb. Banks of loudspeakers have been placed at 11 locations along the border broadcasting pop, news and weather reports, along with criticism of the North.
North Korea has quickly responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and anti-South leaflets.
The ministry said they will also drop necessity goods or portable storage devices together with the leaflets.
“We are reviewing the need for the leaflets, and we have the ability to drop them and we are preparing to do it,” Defense Minister Han Min-koo previously said Tuesday.