S.Korean opposition demands talks with North to defuse tensions

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Blasting the anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaign, the South Korean main opposition on Tuesday called for talks with the North to defuse the ongoing tensions.

Addressing a meeting of the task force on crisis management of the Korean Peninsula at the parliament, locally known as the National Assembly, Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung said the propaganda leaflet campaigns by the North Korean defectors in South Korea was a “violation of the current law.”

“The damage inflicted on residents in the border regions is snowballing,” he said, according to Seoul-based Yonhap News.

Opposition parties dominate the parliament whereas the ruling People’s Power Party is in the minority.

“If we insist on responding with a hard-line stance of 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' the damage will go straight to our own people,” Lee warned.

The divided Koreas have escalated tensions amid military activities as well as propaganda tactics that include anti-regime leaflets sent into the North from South Korea.

Pyongyang has airdropped trash into the South, carried in hundreds of balloons.

Seoul on Tuesday claimed that North Korean soldiers had crossed the border towards South on Sunday, before returning to their side of the Demilitarization Zone.

South Korean military had fired warning shots when the incident happened.

Seoul has also scrapped the 2018 agreement which aimed to reduce tensions during crisis time.

Earlier, North Korea ended almost all of its pacts with South Korea.

Meanwhile, South Korean and US defense officials for the first time visited a military unit Tuesday overseeing missile operations.