South Korean Activist Group Fighters For Free North Korea Sends Anti-Pyongyang Leaflets On Sunday Amid Tensions Over New Threats From The North

A South Korean activist group led by North Korean defector Park Sang Hak says his group sends balloons across the border on Sunday to warn North Korea on its threat to launch a long-range rocket.

Park says that the balloons they have released contain over 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets. He also adds that the group, Fighters for Free North Korea, will continue to send warnings to North Korea through these leaflets to stop the country from its perils.

Last week, North Korea reportedly says that it is ready to launch a long-range rocket to mark the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in October, as reported by state-run news agency KCNA.

"Space development for peaceful purposes is a sovereign state's legitimate right ... and the people of (North Korea) are fully determined to exercise this right no matter what others may say about it," National Aerospace Development Administration director tells KCNA in an interview.

The director was quoted saying that "the world will clearly see a series of satellites ... soaring into the sky at the times and locations determined by the [ruling Workers' party] central committee."

Meanwhile, South Korea's Unification Ministry on Monday says "the government will not stop the leaflets, saying the activity is irrelevant to the recent inter-Korean deal," as reported by Voice of America News on the same day.

"It is the government's position that the activity can't be forcefully stopped as it is an act of free speech," says Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee.

He also adds that "the government will take the necessary steps if the activity threatens the safety of residents near the border."

In October last year, the two Koreas exchanged machine gun fires a few hours after an activist group launched large balloons that contain thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets from a border county north of Seoul.