S. Korea cops halt activists’ bid to release balloons to the North

PAJU (South Korea): Police intervened in a tense confrontation between residents of a South Korean border town and activists attempting to send propaganda leaflets into the North, preventing the launch which had prompted threats of retaliation from Pyongyang.

The dispute began near a park in the border town of Paju, some 40km north of Seoul, when a dozen people with their faces hooded seized an activists’ truck carrying balloons and leaflets.