‘Letters of truth’ from South to N Korea strain Moon’s diplomacy

Seoul has made sending balloons and leaflets across the border an offence, but North Korean defectors are vowing to continue their campaigns.

Seoul, South Korea – “Is South Korea a dictatorship?” asked Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and leader of Fighters for a Free North Korea who regularly sends helium balloons laden with leaflets about the North across the border. “Is it a free and democratic country?” Park sent 10 balloons loaded with 500,000 leaflets and 5,000 one-dollar bills to North Korea at the end of last month. He says he wants North Koreans to know the truth about the Kim Jong Un dictatorship and for North Koreans to rise up against his regime. The leaflets criticise the Kims’s dynastic rule. The dollar bills encourage people to pick up the leaflets. Park has launched such balloons 60 times over the past 10 years or so. The difference now is that it is against the law – South Korean law.