Activists in South Korea launch leaflets into North

Activists in South Korea have launched balloons carrying thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets and USB keys into North Korea.

A group of North Korean defectors now living in the South along with a group of American activists released the balloons that also contained 1,000 US one dollar bills in the border town of Paju on Wednesday.

The packages contained 1,500 USB flash drives loaded with the Korean-language version of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

The 500,000 leaflets in the packages were also accompanied with DVDs about human rights conditions in North Korea as well as some 50 tiny transistor radios.

Activists in South Korea regularly launch giant balloons loaded with propaganda leaflets, which Pyongyang has denounced as “an undisguised psychological warfare.”

In October 2013, South Korean police stopped activists from sending leaflets over the border, after the North Korean army pledged to launch a “merciless military strike” on the South’s territory.

The North’s army also called on the residents living in and around the area where the balloon is expected to scatter leaflets to “evacuate in anticipation of possible damage.”

North and South Korea remain technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice.

Pyongyang accuses Washington of plotting with regional allies to topple the country’s government.