North Korea warns South over anti-Pyongyang leaflets

North Korea says its ties with the South have been driven into ‘catastrophic’ phase again, warning that Seoul’s scattering of anti-Pyongyang leaflets could create a war between the two neighbors.

A spokesman for North Korea’s delegation to the high-level contact with the South said on Saturday that the North-South relations “have been driven into a catastrophic phase again due to the South Korean authorities’ frantic scattering of anti-DPRK (North Korea) leaflets.”

“The leaflet scattering operation and smear campaign… going beyond the tolerance limit are undisguised acts of declaring a war,” he added.

On March 26, North Korea Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea said that South Korean military released anti-Pyongyang leaflets by employing gas-filled balloons floated from frontline islands near the disputed sea border in the Yellow Sea. South Korea’s Defense Ministry has denied the claim.

“Does she really want to see such leaflets becoming a source of war for reducing the base of provocations to ashes? She should bear in mind that now is the time to make a choice herself,” the North Korean spokesman said, referring to South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

The comments came shortly after the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused the US of intentionally increasing tensions in the Korean Peninsula via ongoing joint military drills with the South.

On March 27, around 15,000 South Korean and US troops started a 12-day amphibious landing drill, which is the biggest for two decades.

Pyongyang has repeatedly denounced these maneuvers as a provocative “rehearsal for invasion,” calling for them to be called off to avoid military tensions between the two Koreas.