SOUTH KOREA yesterday accused rival North Korea of floating propaganda leaflets down a river in the first such incident.

    South Korea’s military discovered dozens of plastic bags, each carrying about 20 leaflets, near the estuary of Seoul’s Han River close to the tense Korean border last Friday, according to the South’s Defense Ministry.

    The leaflets contained threats to launch missile attacks and a repeat of the North’s long-running propaganda such as that the North won the 1950-53 Korean War, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.

    The war ended with no one’s victory. An armistice that stopped the fighting has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula split along the world’s most heavily fortified border and at a technical state of war. Yesterday marks the 63rd anniversary of the armistice’s signing.

    North Korean recently warned of unspecified “physical” measures in response to a U.S. plan to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea by the end of next year. North Korea last week fired three ballistic missiles into the sea, according to Seoul defense officials.

    The rival Koreas resumed old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare in the wake of North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January.

    The latest discovery of propaganda leaflets marks the first time for North Korea to use a river to send leaflets. Officials said North Korea is believed to have used a river because the direction of wind isn’t favorable in the summer to fly propaganda balloons from north to south.

    (SD-Agencies)