N. Korea warns of 'fire shower,' military clashes over anti

One of the anti-Pyongyang leaflets that Fighters for Free North Korea claimed it sent toward North Korea across the inter-Korean border, is seen in this Oct. 1, 2022 photo provided by the organization. Newsis

North Korea on Wednesday condemned a decision by South Korea's Constitutional Court to strike down a ban on the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, threatening to launch a "fire shower" and warning of military clashes similar to those in the Middle East and Europe.

In September, the Constitutional Court ruled that a ban on the cross-border leaflet campaign stipulated in the revised Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act is unconstitutional, saying it excessively restricts the right to freedom of expression.

On Wednesday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) lashed out at the court's ruling, warning that the campaigns to send leaflets carrying anti-North Korea messages will serve as a "catalyst" to bring an end to South Korea.

"It is the stance of our revolutionary armed forces that we need to pour down with 'a fire shower of punishment' on not only the base of leaflet distribution but also the stronghold of the puppet beyond our previous responses," the KCNA said.

North Korea called the leaflet campaign "malicious psychosocial warfare."

"There is no guarantee that military conflicts similar to those being staged in Europe and the Middle East will not occur on the Korean Peninsula," the KCNA said, apparently referring to Russia's war in Ukraine and the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas.

For years, North Korean defectors in South Korea and conservative activists have sent balloons carrying leaflets critical of the North's leader Kim Jong-un into the neighboring country. Pyongyang has bristled at the propaganda campaign amid concern that an influx of outside information could pose a threat to the Kim regime.

In October 2014, North Korea fired machine guns at balloons launched by activists. Some bullets landed in South Korean territory, but no one was hurt.

The North also blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its border town of Kaesong in June 2020 in anger over the sending of propaganda leaflets.

In December 2020, South Korea legislated the law to stop the leafleting campaigns, about six months after Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North's leader, threatened to scrap the 2018 no-hostility military pact with the South in protest of the leaflet campaign. (Yonhap)