North Korea says propaganda leaflets from South could carry coronavirus
Park Sang-hak
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".