(ATTN: UPDATES article based on KCNA's English-language dispatch)
SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) -- The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned Tuesday that South Korea will face "gruesome and dear" consequences if it lets North Korean defectors continue to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North.
Kim Yo-jong, vice department director at the ruling Workers' Party, said North Korea will inevitably change its method of responses if the defectors continue the leaflet campaigns against the North, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"We give the scum a stern warning again. They should be ready for paying a gruesome and dear price," Kim in a statement carried by the KCNA.
Kim said the North has discovered 29 large balloons carrying such leaflets near the inter-Korean border and other areas.
"If the ROK scum persist in their crude and dirty play, the mode of counteraction of the DPRK will inevitably be changed," Kim said, hinting that North Korea could take a new tactic to counter the leaflet campaign instead of sending trash-filled balloons.
ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name. DPRK is the acronym of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Since late May, North Korea has sent more than 2,000 trash-filled balloons into the South, in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors in the South.
Kim made a similar warning Sunday claiming that the leaflets from the South were found in more than a dozen places in the border and other regions and were all incinerated.
At that time, the North's state media published rare photos showing leaflets flown in from South Korea being burned, along with a pack of cold medicine.
Materials believed to be anti-Pyongyang leaflets from South Korea are set on fire after being discovered in North Korea, in this photo released by the North's Korean Central News Agency on July 14, 2024. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
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