North Korea on Wednesday called on the South to punish activists who masterminded the floating of propaganda leaflets across the border. The official [North] Korean Central News Agency quoted the chief delegate to inter-Korean working-level military talks as demanding in a telephone message that Seoul immediately disband conservative organizations engaged in sending leaflets and punish their leaders.He said, "The 'people's coalition for sending leaflets to the North,' a federation of far right conservative groups, created another round of commotion by sending hundreds of thousands of propaganda leaflets to our side from the Imjingak Pavilion" in Paju, Gyeonggi Province on Jan. 1 in an "anticommunist frenzy."
The North "will never tolerate the slightest acts undermining our leadership's absolute authority and the socialist fatherland's dignity, no matter how precious and urgent the improvement of North-South Korean relations is," the message said.
The North "must take a serious look at the provocative leaflet dissemination... instigated by South Korean authorities, which are leading inter-Korean relations to a confrontation behind our back while calling for dialogue and improvement of ties to our face," it added.