But North Korean defectors and conservative activists in the South continued to send balloons to the North. Their balloons carried mini-Bibles, dollar bills, computer USB sticks containing South Korean soap operas and leaflets calling Mr. Kim and his father and grandfather, who ruled the North before him, “pigs,” “vampires.” . and “womanizers”. “
These balloons, their supporters said, helped diminish the information blackout and cult of personality imposed by North Korea against its people.
North Korea was offended, so much so that its military fired anti-aircraft fire to shoot down plastic balloons heading north. In 2016, he retaliated by sending balloons loaded with cigarette butts and other trash, as well as leaflets calling the then South Korean leader, Park Geun-hye, an “evil witch.” A few years later it was claimed that balloons coming from the South carried the Covid-19 virus.
In 2021, South Korea enacted a law banning the dissemination of propaganda leaflets in North Korea. The government at the time claimed that the balloons did nothing but provoke the North and also created garbage in the South because some balloons never make it across the border.
But last year, the South’s Constitutional Court struck down the law, calling it an unconstitutional violation of free speech.
