[AJU NEWS CORP DB]
The propaganda war across the tensely guarded inter-Korean border is getting nasty with North Korea sending leaflets together with used toilet paper and cigarette butts, police said Thursday.
The North's fourth nuclear test on January 6 prompted South Korean border troops to switch back on clusters of loudspeakers blaring messages criticizing North Korea's leadership. The North responded with its own giant loudspeakers and daily leaflet launches.
Initially North Korea's propaganda war focused on justifying its nuclear test, but it has changed its strategy, bombarding South Korean border areas with leaflets that contained crude messages insulting South Korean President Park Geun-Hye.
Some had cartoons of Park in a red bikini being thrown into a rubbish bin.
Previously Pyongyang has been sexist and racist for its propaganda war, calling Park a prostitute. It has also published pictures showing US President Barack Obama as a monkey.
In its recent dispatch, however, North Korea has sometimes loaded balloons with trash, used toilet paper and cigarette butts, police said.
"On January 27, we collected some 600 cigarette butts along with leaflets," a police officer in the border city of Paju north of Seoul told Aju News.
"Since January 6, North Korean leaflets have landed every day in border areas, making us very busy to collect them," he added.
Most South Koreans don't take North Korean leaflets seriously, but they are concerned about leaflet bundles which have caused minor damage to civilian quarters.
North Korea has used time bombs to control the explosion of huge plastic balloons.
Pyongyang has reacted angrily to South Korean loudspeakers but Seoul vowed to step up its propaganda war seen by Park as "the surest and most effective" measure to punish North Korea's provocative activities.
South Korean officials insist their equipment is far more powerful than that of North Korea as their broadcasts can be heard as much as 10 km (6.2 miles) across the border in the day and farther at night.
In August, the South briefly switched on speakers at 11 places after an 11-year break. They now use vehicles mounted with loudspeakers to evade possible attacks from North Korea's artillery. North Korea has threatened to blow up South Korean loudspeakers, calling them an act of war.
아주경제 임장원 기자 = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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