(Seoul) The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday threatened South Korea with a “horrible disaster” if drones loaded with propaganda leaflets crossed the border again.
“When a ROK drone [Corée du Sud] will be discovered again in the skies of our capital, it will certainly lead to a horrible disaster,” Kim Yo Jong, one of the North Korean regime’s most senior spokespeople, said in a statement.
The latter said Friday that its southern neighbor had sent drones carrying propaganda leaflets into North Korean airspace on October 3, then on Wednesday and Thursday.
The drones dropped propaganda leaflets hostile to the Pyongyang regime which contained “odious slander”, according to the North Korean agency KCNA.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied the claim, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff later changed its position, saying in a statement that it “cannot confirm whether the allegations North Korean attacks are true or not.
Seoul’s refusal to confirm means the drones were sent by “the gangsters military,” Kim Yo Jong declared again on Saturday.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has issued a “final ultimatum” to South Korea, ordering it to stop what it considers to be “intolerable provocations.”
Photos purported to be from propaganda leaflets were shared by North Korean official media, alongside a blurry image of an “unmanned drone.”
Despite attempts by authorities to prevent them, South Korean activists have for years launched balloons containing propaganda and US dollars towards the North, actions that have enraged Pyongyang.
Pyongyang has launched nearly 5,000 garbage-weighted balloons toward the South since May, saying they are in retaliation for propaganda-dropping balloons launched by South Korean militants.
According to the South Korean agency Yonhap, Pyongyang launched a new series of balloons filled with waste on Friday evening.
Relations between the two neighbors are particularly difficult, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un having designated South Korea this year as “the main enemy” of his country.