Defectors' group sends balloons carrying propaganda leaflets to North Korea

Seoul, April 28: A North Korean defectors' group on Thursday announced that it sent 20 big balloons carrying propaganda leaflets, including those on the news of Yoon Suk-yeol's election as South Korea's new President, to Pyongyang across the countries' western border.

Some 1 million anti-Pyongyang leaflets were sent over to North Korea in the latest leaflet campaign carried out in Gimpo, west of Seoul, on Monday-Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Fighters for Free North Korea (FFNK) as saying in a statement.

Some of the leaflets were carrying the news of Yoon's election and his photos, the group said

"A great nation where a prosecutor has become a national leader," some of the leaflets read.

Through a revision of the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act last year, the South Korean government has been banning the sending of propaganda leaflets across the border, with people violating the law subject to up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of 30 million won ($23,700).

Park Sang-hak, the head of the defectors' group, is standing trial on charges of launching balloons full of anti-North Korea leaflets and $1 bills to North Korea across the Demilitarized Zone in Gyeonggi and Gangwon province on two occasions in April last year.

Before the law revision, the FFNK had often carried out such balloon campaigns in the hope of liberating North Korean people with news and information from the outside.