North Korea claims that it is ready to send over its own propaganda leaflets to South Korea as another part of the continued deterioration of the relations between the two Koreas. The North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which is the official state media, claimed that the North Korean people are pushing for the distribution of what they have turned as the “leaflets of punishment.”

“The enraged people across the country are actively pushing forward with the preparations for launching a large-scale distribution of leaflets to pour the leaflets of punishment upon those in South Korea who are bereft of even elementary morality,” KCNA reported.

North Korea is angered by the leaflets being sent over from South Korea. They are claiming that North Korean defectors are the ones behind the propaganda materials, and they are threatening military action to put a stop to them. One group of North Korean defectors claim that they have scrapped plans to send over containers with food, medicines, and face masks.

The two countries are technically still at war and they have waged a propaganda war for decades. However, North Korea is at a clear disadvantage when it comes to that type of conflict since it relies on its citizens being uninformed for it to continue.

The relationship between South and North Korea appears to have been improving in recent years, largely due to the efforts of President Donald Trump. During a historic meeting in 2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In met at the demarcation line and they crossed over into each other’s territory. It was a highly symbolic gesture that looked promising and many hoped that it would bring about the formal end of the war.

Unfortunately, tensions are on the rise again in the Korean peninsula. The North Korean regime is seizing the opportunity to use the leaflets and other propaganda materials sent by various groups into North Korean territory as a reason to antagonize South Korea. It is possible that the materials, which sometimes include USB drives with files that expose the reality of the North Korean regime, are having their desired effect on the North Korean citizenry. It is unclear as to whether North Korea will actually carry on with its threat of sending its own propaganda leaflets although they have even shared photos of workers getting the materials already.