Pyongyang threatened military action if the provocations continued, while the South advised its angry neighbor not to act “rashly.”
North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of sending unmanned drones to scatter propaganda leaflets over its capital city of Pyongyang, and threatened military action if the flights continued.
South Korean drones were seen over Pyongyang on Wednesday and Thursday night this week, the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday. The drones dropped “numerous leaflets full of political propaganda and slander” against the government of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, it said.
North Korea called the intrusions “a grave political and military provocation” that could lead to “an armed conflict.” It said its military was preparing “all means of attack” and would respond without warning if South Korean drones were detected over its territory again.
“The criminals should no longer gamble with the lives of their citizens,” it said.
No anti-North Korean activist group in South Korea has claimed responsibility for the drones. The South Korean military said it could not confirm the North Korean claim, but advised North Korea “not to act rashly.” The North Korean statement on Friday did not describe what type of drone was spotted.
“We will retaliate resolutely and mercilessly if the North endangers the safety of our people,” South Korea said in a statement.
Tensions between the two Koreas have increased in recent months as anti-North Korean activists in the South — mostly defectors — have sent balloons filled with leaflets criticizing Mr. Kim’s government across the border. North Korea has also released thousands of balloons toward the South since May. The payloads mostly contained scrap paper and other household trash.
North Korea has resorted to increasingly hostile language toward the South ever since Mr. Kim’s diplomacy with former President Donald J. Trump collapsed in 2019. The two leaders were meant to negotiate an agreement on rolling back the North’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for easing United Nations sanctions.
Mr. Kim has since expanded his weapons tests while South Korea has redoubled its military ties with the United States and Japan.
During the Cold War, the two Korean militaries often sent propaganda balloons across the border. When the leaders of the two Koreas held the first inter-Korean summit meeting in 2000, they agreed to end the government-sponsored balloon campaigns.
But North Korean defectors and conservative and Christian activists in the South have continued the practice, sending balloons filled with mini-Bibles, USB drives containing K-pop and K-drama and leaflets calling Mr. Kim a “pig.”
Mr. Kim’s government has called the leaflets political “filth.”
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun
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