Seoul: North Korea Has Sent 1 Million Propaganda Leaflets

North Korea’s leafleting came as tensions mounted on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang’s claim on January 6 of its first H-bomb test.

The North reportedly began its leaflet campaign last week in response to high-decibel propaganda broadcasts from the southern side of the inter-Korean border.

But North Korea’s ruling regime – pushed by realities on the ground – does appear to be genuinely considering at least some kind of economic reform.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South Korean military said the military warned the drone to leave the area, then fired warning shots. This week North Korea claimed it had, but you can disregard Kim Jong-un’s boast for now. From the beginning of the Obama administration, North Korea has rejected the extended hand that President Obama offered to other USA adversaries, instead clenching its fists and doubling down on the goal of developing a survivable nuclear strike capability. Chinese authorities have raised similar concerns about US BMD systems targeting its nuclear deterrent under the guise of the North Korea threat.

Images of the leaflets posted online showed a variety of blustery messages, many of which focused on the South Korean propaganda broadcasts.

Sin-myeong comments bolstered suspicion that North Korea may have sent what he described as “two-track smishing mails” by disguising them as being sent by either South Korea’s presidential office or the foreign ministry. South Korea previously restarted propaganda broadcasts in August past year, prompting North Korea to put its troops on a war footing.

He adds: “North Korea’s nuclear test is a blatant violation of its worldwide obligations”.

Kim Jong Il was heavily reliant on North Korea’s military to ensure regime survival and pushed a “military-first” policy which prioritised spending on North Korea’s bloated and poorly-equipped army and nuclear programme.

US Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who was in Seoul on a two-day visit, noted China had a particular role to play given its “special relationship” with its reclusive neighbor. “We will not proliferate nuclear weapons anymore or transfer related means and technology”, it continued.

According to several government sources, Gen. Kim Yong-chol, chief of the North’s General Bureau of Reconnaissance, appears to have been chosen as director of the United Front Department (UFD) to fill a post left vacant after director Kim Yang-gon was killed in a auto accident last month at the age of 73.