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N. Korea arresting carriers of $1 bills to stop anti-Pyongyang leaflets: activist
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is arresting citizens who possess U.S. one dollar bills as a way to crack down on packages of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent by South Korean activists that include the currency, an activist here said Wednesday.
The North's spy agency, the State Security Agency, issued the directive in early November to stop citizens from collecting the leaflets that criticize leader Kim Jong-il and his communist regime, said Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and leader of Fighters For Free North Korea in Seoul.
Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said he "heard of the rumor," but refused to officially confirm it.
The National Intelligence Agency, South Korea's spy agency, said it will check the information.
Despite government appeals, defectors and Christian organizations have been sending balloons containing anti-North Korea flyers for years. The packages include one dollar bills and daily necessities rare in North Korea, such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, socks, stockings, aspirin, ballpoint pens and lighters. The flyers describe leader Kim's alleged women and lavish lifestyle, as well as his reported ill health and South Korea's prosperous market economy.
North Korean authorities have repeatedly denounced the leaflets as "provocative."
Park, who defected to the South in 2000, said he heard about the North Korean spy agency's directive from his informants in China's border region.
"They told me not to put in dollars anymore. I was surprised," he said.
"We can't have North Koreans sent to prison, so we are preparing North Korean bills instead," he said.
Park said his organization will fly a fresh batch of balloons into North Korea in early February, this time stuffed with 5,000 won North Korean bills. A North Korean citizen earns about 3,000 won per month on average.
North Koreans make use of the dollar by exchanging it for Chinese or local currency in black markets, he said. Dollar bills are rarely circulated in North Korea, as diplomats and merchants usually bring bills in higher denominations.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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