Anchor: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Yo-jong, issued a statement criticizing the South Korean government for not preventing anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns on the border by North Korea escapees. As she threatened to scrap peace agreements between the two Korean militaries and other key accords, Seoul immediately responded, promising to devise ways to prevent civilian groups from sending leaflets. However, the defectors are not budging. 
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: North Korea is furious after a defector group sent a balloon carrying 500-thousand leaflets denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un into the North on Sunday.

Kim Yo-jong, Kim’s powerful sister, slammed the leaflet campaign in a statement on Thursday, threatening to scrap the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement among other key accords.

The deputy director of the North Korean ruling party's central committee said her side can also completely withdraw from the shuttered inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex or shut down the inter-Korean liaison office unless the defectors are put under control.

Hours later, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesperson Yoh Sang-key called for a halt to the leaflet campaigns.

[Sound bite: Yoh Sang-key, Unification Ministry Spokesperson (Korean)]
"The government has taken repeated steps to stop leaflet distribution after it was found to have heightened cross-border tensions. Most of the leaflets are found south of the border and they worsen area residents' living conditions through pollution and creating a burden of waste collection. Any activity that threatens inter-Korean quarantine cooperation and the lives and property of residents must be stopped.“

A South Korean presidential official also stressed that the existing inter-Korean agreements signed during a series of summits in 2018 should be fulfilled.

The Unification Ministry spokesperson said that the ministry is planning to legislate a ban on the campaigns.

Previous leaflet launches have elicited angry and potentially dangerous responses from the North.

In the fall of 2014, North Korea fired air defense machine guns towards balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, leading to a brief exchange of fire between the two Koreas across the demilitarized zone.  

During their 2018 summit held at the truce village of Panmunjeom, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to suspend all hostile activities in border areas, including leaflet activities and loudspeaker psychological operations. 

While continuing leaflet operations, defector activists in the South have since argued that their free speech rights have been violated by the pact. 

Park Sang-hak, the leader of the group responsible for Sunday’s launch, claimed in media interviews that the North Korean regime is enraged by his operation of a pre-programmed drone, which he said crashed in Pyongyang in April while carrying ten-thousand leaflets. 

Blaming the South Korean government for siding with the North, defector activists say they will continue to carry out leaflet activities against the North Korean regime.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.