SEOUL: South Korean activists launched tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border into North Korea on Thursday, denouncing its latest nuclear test and defying threats of retaliation.
The leaflets, criticizing leader Kim Jong-Un for putting nuclear weapons before the wellbeing of his people, were launched with helium balloons from the border city of Paju.
The propaganda exercise, organized by North Korean defector-turned-activist Park Sang-Hak, came amid surging military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North’s fifth and largest-ever nuclear test last week.
Hours before the balloon launch was scheduled to begin, the North’s official KCNA news agency published a commentary describing Park as “human scum without an equal in the world.”
KCNA said the balloon launch was a desperate response to the success of last week’s test, and a bid by Seoul to “stoke confrontation” over the holiday period.
The launch came in the middle of the three-day Chuseok harvest festival holiday — celebrated on both sides of the border.
Conservative South Korean activists, including many North Korean defectors, have been carrying out leafleting exercises using giant helium balloons for years — a practice that infuriates Pyongyang, which has threatened military strikes in response.
Park Sang-Hak said strong winds at the border had restricted Thursday’s event to the launch of around 150,000 leaflets — half the planned number.
“We are doing this to inform the 20 million starving people in North Korea of the truth,” Park said.
“At this moment, when hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from terrible floods, Kim Jong-Un conducted another nuclear test.
“So, who is calling who ‘human scum?’” he said.
North Korean state media has described ongoing floods as the worst to hit the country since World War II.
According to a UN agency report, 138 people have died and 400 are missing after torrential rains caused devastation in the country’s far north.
Activists launch leaflets into N. Korea after nuclear test
Activists launch leaflets into N. Korea after nuclear test
Bride and groom among 8 killed in gas cylinder blast at wedding in Pakistan’s capital
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the loss of lives and offered condolences to the victims’ families, according to a statement from his office
ISLAMABAD: A gas cylinder explosion early Sunday after a wedding reception at a home in Pakistan’s capital killed at least eight people, including the bride and groom, police and officials said.
The blast occurred as guests who had gathered to celebrate the couple were sleeping at the house, causing part of the house to collapse, according to the Islamabad police. Seven people were injured.
In a statement, police said the explosion occurred in a residential area in the heart of the city. A government administrator, Sahibzada Yousaf, said authorities were alerted about the blast early Sunday and officers are still investigating. He said some nearby homes were also damaged.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the loss of lives and offered condolences to the victims’ families, according to a statement from his office. He directed health authorities to ensure the injured receive the best possible treatment and ordered a full investigation.
Many Pakistani households rely on liquefied petroleum gas cylinders because of low natural gas pressure, and such cylinders have been linked to deadly accidents caused by gas leaks. Police said investigations were ongoing.
