Park Sang-hak, a defector-turned-activist, flies anti-Pyongyang leaflets in the border town of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, in this 2012 file photo. / Korea Times file



By Lee Min-hyung

Park Sang-hak, a defector-turned-activist, says he will stop sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea.

His decision came a day after the North threatened to mobilize military forces to deter the campaign.

"I am not going to send the leaflets for the time being," Park said. "Given that the North threatened to retaliate against the leaflet campaign, the regime is afraid of it (the campaign)."

He had said earlier he would send leaflets across the border to mark the fifth anniversary of the regime's torpedo attack on the Cheonan warship on March 26, 2010

Park, president of the non-profit Fighters for Free North Korea, had said he would send 500,000 leaflets toward the North.

"The North should stop denying responsibility for the incident and sincerely apologize," he added.

The reclusive regime has never accepted its involvement in the attack, in which 46 South Korean sailors died.

On Sunday, the North stepped up its bellicose rhetoric over the leaflet campaign.

"If North Korean defectors send anti-Pyongyang leaflets toward the North, border town residents in the South should evacuate to avoid our artillery attacks," warned the North's state-run Korea Central News Agency.