PPP vows 'most lethal' response to North Korea's Kim family over balloon controversy

PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho speaks at a meeting in Yeouido, Seoul, June 3. Yonhap

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) warned Monday of the "most effective and lethal" measures against North Korea for sending trash balloons into South Korea and jamming GPS signals last week.

PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho stressed during a meeting of the emergency committee that the Kim family will "inevitably pay the price" for its provocations. He also demanded that the North immediately cease all its "ignorant" provocations and issue an immediate apology to South Koreans.

Since Thursday, Pyongyang has sent nearly 1,000 balloons carrying trash to the South in what it called a "tit-for-tat" action against anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns by Seoul activists.

Hours after the South Korean government on Sunday warned it will take "unendurable" measures against North Korea's balloon provocations, the North said it will temporarily halt dropping balloons across the border.

The Democratic Party Korea (DPK) on Monday blamed President Yoon Suk Yeol's hard-line policy on the North for causing Pyongyang's release of the trash balloons. The DPK also said South Korea's decadeslong campaign of sending leaflets to the North was what pushed the North to send its own balloons filled with waste.

"Why risk our security with our own hands and escalate tensions by responding with resuming loudspeaker broadcasting and slapping additional sanctions on North Korea when there are other options that can resolve the issue?" DPK leader Lee Jae-myung said during a Supreme Council meeting.

The party also urged the government to reconsider resuming loudspeaker broadcasting along the border, stressing it will only invite stronger confrontation from both sides.

The loudspeakers, which blast messages critical of the North Korean regime and K-pop music over the border, have been suspended since a military agreement was signed in 2018 to ease inter-Korean tensions. (Yonhap)