North Korea threatens to send army in demilitarised zone with South over propaganda leaflets

The North Korean Army on Tuesday warned that it will re-enter border areas demilitarised under a peace pact with South Korea, if defector groups there continue to send propaganda leaflets across the border, BBC reported. The so-called demilitarised zone is a buffer along the border between North and South Korea that has separated the two countries since the Korean War in the 1950s.

Leaflets critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the regime’s disregard for human rights have become a source of tension between the two Koreas recently. Last week, Pyongyang cut all communications with the South, including a hotline between the two nations’ leaders, after it was angered by the pamphlets sent by defector groups. The sending of leaflets across the border was also banned under the 2018 inter-Korean agreement.

The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said it has been reviewing an “action plan” to advance into unspecified zones that had been demilitarised under a 2018 inter-Korean pact and “turn the front line into a fortress”.

“Our army will rapidly and thoroughly implement any decisions and orders of the Party and government,” the army said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera. The KPA also said North Korea would send its own propaganda into the South as…

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