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This photo released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un receiving a standing ovation from attendees at the eighth congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang held from Jan. 5 to Jan. 12. His sister, Kim Yo-jong, can be seen on the right. (Yonhap News)

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee, issued a statement Sunday criticizing the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in over the scattering of propaganda leaflets by defector groups and warning that North Korea would “look into corresponding action.”

In a personal statement published on page two of the Rodong Sinmun newspaper that day, Kim said, “‘Defectors from the north’ in south Korea recently scattered leaflets against the DPRK again, an intolerable provocation against it.”

“However, the south Korean authorities again did not stop the reckless acts of the ‘defectors from the north’, winking at them,” she added. “We can no longer remain an onlooker,”

Kim’s claims appeared premature and excessive in terms of the facts and justification behind them.

To begin with, while the group Fighters for a Free North Korea claimed Friday to have released balloons toward the North carrying leaflets from around the Demilitarized Zone in Gyeonggi and Gangwon Provinces between Sunday and Thursday, it did not present any hard evidence of having done so.

The South Korean Ministry of Unification also said the same day that it planned to “respond in accordance with the legislative intent of the amended Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act.”

If it turns out that the balloon launches actually took place, the authorities plan to press charges under Articles 24 and 25 of the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, which state that the dissemination of pamphlets or use of loudspeakers around the Military Demarcation Line can be punished by up to three years in prison and up to 30 million won (US$26,866) in fines in order to protect the lives and safety of citizens living in the border region.

“The issue of balloon launches is being investigated by a dedicated police task force, reflecting the need for the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act to be implemented in line with its goal of protecting the lives and safety of South Korean citizens,” the Ministry of Unification said Sunday, while stipulating that “the government is opposed to anyone taking steps that raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

Those remarks reconfirm the government’s plan to prosecute the parties concerned after verifying the facts. However, a government official said that “so far, we’ve only seen a claim about balloon launches and haven’t acquired any physical evidence.”

In light of that, it’s worth noting that North Korea released Kim Yo-jong’s statement simultaneously as a Foreign Ministry statement criticizing the US.

“North Korea’s apparent strategy here is to bludgeon South Korea in order to force action by the US. The North could put more pressure on the South prior to the South Korea-US summit on May 21,” said a former high-ranking official in the South Korean government.

In a related story, Kim Chang-yong, commissioner of South Korea’s National Police Agency (NPA), gave orders Sunday for the alleged launches of propaganda balloons to be investigated.

The police appear committed to making a thorough response amid controversy following the announcement last month by Park Sang-hak, chairman of Fighters for a Free North Korea, that the group had disseminated propaganda leaflets.

The NPA explained that Kim had given the orders to a team responsible for national security investigations at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

“Kim reprimanded the police for being half-hearted and negligent in their initial response to the propaganda leaflets when there’s not much time left before the South Korea-US summit. He wants the case to be handled with precision and severity,” the NPA said.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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