These propaganda leaflets being released by human rights groups in South Korea must be getting more and more effective considering how upset the North Korean regime is getting because of them:

North Korea has accused the South Korean government of being behind the distribution of propaganda leaflets by South Korean civic groups in the North. The Rodong Shinmun, the organ of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, said Friday the distribution of propaganda leaflets “reflects South Korea’s intention to provoke a war. We will not be playing dead.”

The piece dismissed the South Korean Unification Ministry’s request to civic groups to refrain from distributing leaflets, saying the South Korean government was “just playing games.”

The daily contrasts this supposed inactivity with the South Korean government’s allegedly drastic handling of massive street protests earlier this year, saying the claim that Seoul “is unable to control a voluntary act of individuals distributing anti-North Korean leaflets under the ‘special’ circumstances of a democratic country is complete nonsense.“ [Chosun Ilbo]

The latest leaflets to draw the North Korean’s anger were sent by the group, Fighters for Free North Korea and U.S. conservative activist Suzanne Scholte. With the leaflets they also included US dollar bills and Chinese Yuan. Those dollar bills are probably the only US currency in North Korea that is legit.

North Korea is saying that if the leaflet drops don’t stop then they will stop all cooperation at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Sounds like an empty threat to me considering the North Koreans have a whole lot more to lose from suspending the complex then the South Koreans considering how much money the North Korean regime is making from the joint complex.

What I love about the North Koreans is that they are demanding that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak crackdown on the groups sending the propaganda leaflets into North Korea but they also want Lee to stop his crackdown of the North Korean stooges still protesting US beef imports:

“The Lee Myung-bak group’s reckless suppression of the pro-reunification democratic forces is a frontal challenge to the South Korean people who desire new politics and new life, and a crime against the nation and reunification,” Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper published by the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary last week. [Yonhap]

At some point though I do have to begin to worry about the safety of these groups sending these leaflets because what is to stop the North Koreans from sinking one of these boats out in the East Sea sending out these leaflets?