By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
North Korea has sent two letters of protest to the South Korean government since Saturday, demanding action against civic activists sending packages attached to helium balloons across the inter-Korean border – according to reports out of Seoul Tuesday.
South Korean news agency Yonhap stated that Pyongyang’s National Defense Commission, headed by the nation’s leader Kim Jong-un, faxed messages to the South’s National Security Council on Saturday and Monday – an unusually direct method of communication for the North.
Pyongyang is said to have ordered Seoul to resolve the matter if it wants to resume talks related to the inter-Korean industrial complex at Kaesong – which was at the center of a standoff between the two sides last year.
The South Korean government has reportedly responded by refusing to link the issues.
Activists have for years sent balloons from the South in an attempt to disrupt Pyongyang’s authoritarian rule – dispatching everything from snacks to information in the direction of the reclusive state, where communications are heavily restricted.
Each helium balloon can carry tens of thousands of leaflets, along with radios and USB sticks – potentially opening ordinary North Koreans up to the outside world.
The border between the Koreas has been heavily guarded since the Korean War came to a de facto close with a ceasefire in 1953.
But the North has repeatedly countered the arrival of balloons by threatening military action – including in March of this year, with the warning that the scattering of anti-Pyongyang propaganda could trigger a resumption of war.
Meanwhile, South Korean officials are investigating the wreckage of a suspected North Korean drone, which was discovered near the countries’ Yellow Sea border.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Monday that the unmanned aircraft had been found by a fisherman earlier in the afternoon – and that it resembled other North Korean drones that crash-landed earlier this year.
The North has previously rejected any links to the aircraft, one of which managed to capture images of Seoul’s presidential office before coming down.
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