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N.Korea Urges South to Stop Leaflet Launches

North Korea has sent a rare message to the South Korean president's office, demanding an end to anti-Pyongyang leaflet launches into the North, officials said Tuesday.

The message, addressed to the presidential Blue House, was sent through a military hotline on Monday by the North's powerful National Defense Commission (NDC), the South's unification ministry said.

The message urged Seoul to stop anti-North activists sending leaflets over the border by balloon, and said action would have to be taken before the North would consider the South's recent proposal for high-level talks.

Civic groups in the South regularly float leaflets over the border with messages criticizing the Kim dynasty and urging the North Korean people to rise up against repression.

Police have prevented some events when the risk of a North Korean retaliation has been deemed dangerously high, but otherwise they are allowed to go ahead.

Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae dismissed the North's "unreasonable" message.

"It's impossible to solve problems if one side forwards unilateral demands," Ryoo said in a speech at a reunification-related event Tuesday.

Source: Agence France Presse


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