North Korea says propaganda leaflets from South could carry coronavirus
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An anti-North Korea activist group said it had sent balloons into the North last week with dollar bills and leaflets denouncing the government in Pyongyang
North Korea has warned its citizens on Thursday to stay away from leaflets that were sent via balloon from the South, saying they could carry coronavirus.
An anti-North Korea activist group said it had sent balloons into the North last week with dollar bills and leaflets denouncing the government in Pyongyang.
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North Korea's state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said when a "strange object" comes across through wind, it should be considered as a potential route of the "malicious virus", according to news agency Yonhap.
It advised people to "think and move" as per the coronavirus guidelines.
The warning comes on a day when South Korean police raided the office of the activist group behind the release of balloons.
Police said they carried a raid on the basis of a search and seizure warrant against the Seoul office of Fighters for Free North Korea.
The group is led by Park Sang-hak, who defected from North Korea in 2000.
"Seven police officers raided my office around 10:10 am," Park told news agency Reuters.
The group claimed that it had released launched 10 advertising balloons from border regions which contain 500,000 leaflets, 500 booklets and 5,000 one-dollar bills.
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a statement strongly condemned the move, calling the acts by "human wastes in the South" is a "serious provocation" and warned of a "corresponding action".
