Defense minister Shin Won-shik has warned that North Korea may shoot at or shell locations where North Korean defectors groups based in South Korea launch balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border. 

In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun daily published on Wednesday, Shin said Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, hinted at changes in the regime's response to the propaganda leaflet campaigns.

Shin said South Korea is closely watching the North’s movements as there is the possibility of North Korea shooting down balloons floated by the defector groups or shelling the locations where the balloons are launched. 

He added that the North may also engage in provocations such as planting landmines, sending anti-South Korea propaganda leaflets with drones, conducting GPS signal jamming attacks and cyber attacks. 

Kim Yo-jong said in a statement last Tuesday carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency that more anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by the South were found again in the North and warned if the South Korean "scum" continues with its "crude and dirty play, it will be inevitable for the North to change its countermeasures.