Seoul: North Korea floats propaganda leaflets via river

South Korea’s military discovered dozens of plastic bags, each carrying about 20 leaflets, near the estuary of Seoul’s Han River close to the tense Korean border last Friday, according to the South’s Defense Ministry.

Ri said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had called for a peace treaty with the USA to replace the armistice at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and the removal of all U.S. troops and equipment from the South. South Korea is accusing rival North Korea of floating propaganda leaflets via a river in the first such incident.

On July 19, North Korea test-fired three ballistic missiles in protest against the planned deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Seongju, 296 kilometers south of Seoul, by the end of 2017. Seoul is only an hour’s drive from the border.

Commander of the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and United States Forces Korea General Vincent K. Brooks, center, poses for photographs with South Korean military officials during a ceremony marking the 63rd anniversary of the signing of the Korean War ceasefire armistice agreement at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea on July 27, 2016.

Minister Ri also criticized Seoul’s recent decision to deploy an advanced US anti-missile system in South Korea.

They also urged the North to “comply with” all UNSC resolutions, including the latest one adopted in the wake of the January nuclear test, while calling for more efforts to be made for the “early resumption of the six-party talks” for the sake of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul resumed blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers. The North Korean government has been known to attach leaflets to balloons, which it floats toward South Korea.

The Korean Peninsula was divided into the Soviet-backed communist North and the American allied South after it was liberated from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.

In this photo provided by the South Korean military on July, 27, 2016, vinyl bags carrying North Korean leaflets are displayed on a table.

Since the Korean War, both sides have sent propaganda across the border, commonly using balloons.

Members of the South Korean honor guard hold flags of countries which participated in the Korean War during a commemorative ceremony marking the 63rd anniversary of the Armistice Agreement and UN Forces Participation in the Korean War in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 27, 2016.