SKorea, Japan activists fly leaflets toward NKorea

[June 23, 2010]  CHEORWON, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean and Japanese activists floated hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon toward the border with North Korea on Wednesday to condemn the country's government amid tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.

North Korean defectors living in the South and other activists regularly fly leaflets across the heavily armed frontier in a campaign to urge North Koreans to rise up against leader Kim Jong Il's authoritarian regime.

The leaflets sent Wednesday criticized North Korea's late founding father Kim Il Sung for starting the 1950-53 Korean War and blamed the current government led by his son, Kim Jong Il, for a botched currency reform and the downing of the warship, which killed 46 sailors.

The sending of the leaflets comes amid North Korean threats to launch an all-out strike against any South Korean government propaganda facilities at the border such as loudspeakers.

The groups originally planned to send 100 balloons carrying a total of 6 million leaflets, but less-than-ideal wind conditions at the launch site near the border reduced the total to nine balloons and 540,000 leaflets, organizers said. It was unclear whether the balloons would actually reach North Korea. They plan to send the rest later this week.

"We'd like to punish the Kim Jong Il government by spreading the truth written on these leaflets," said Seo Jung-gab, president of the National Action Campaign, one of the participating groups.

Also among groups participating was the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea, a group supporting the families of Japanese abducted by Pyongyang's agents in the 1970s and '80s.

The leaflets contained a message to the abductees and contact information for organizations in Japan and China working to assist them.

"North Korean citizens don't even know that their government kidnapped people worldwide," said Tsutomu Nishioka, chairman of the group.

North Korea has admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens and has allowed five to return home, saying the other eight died. Tokyo has demanded proof of the deaths and a probe into other suspected kidnapping cases. Besides the five who returned to Japan, the government has identified 12 other citizens it says were abducted.

The two Koreas ended decades of propaganda campaigns against each other in 2004 as relations improved following a 2000 summit. However, South Korea resumed propaganda radio broadcasts as part of steps to punish the North for allegedly sinking the warship with a torpedo in March.

South Korea has asked the U.N. Security Council to punish North Korea over the sinking. As part of retaliatory measures, Seoul installed 11 loudspeakers this month along the border to blare propaganda, but has so far stopped short of starting broadcasts or flying leaflets.

A multinational investigation led by South Korea concluded last month that North Korea was responsible for the ship sinking. The North has denied responsibility and threatened to respond to South Korean retaliatory measures with war.

Separately, South Korea promoted 27 generals and admirals Wednesday in an annual military revamp. It followed a recent reshuffle of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and three other top officers amid criticisms that the military was negligent in the sinking and mishandled it.

The annual promotions, originally scheduled for April, came two weeks after the country's state audit agency told the defense minister to punish 25 top military officials over the sinking.

[Associated Press; By CLAIRE LEE]

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