Officials and members of North Korean women's unions stage a mass rally outside a museum in Sinchon, South Hwanghae Province, Tuesday, to denounce the South Korean government and North Korean defectors here for their anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

North Korea is ratcheting up its hostile rhetoric against South Korea in its latest expression of anger over the latter's "failure" to curb North Korean defectors' anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns.

Now, its fury has expanded to the United States as the Kim Jong-un regime has threatened to interfere in its presidential election in November if Washington continues to meddle in inter-Korean affairs. The threat came after the U.S. State Department expressed disappointment, Tuesday, over Pyongyang's decision to cut off all communication lines between the two Koreas.

"They (South Koreans) have never abandoned their ugly intentions to destroy our country," the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said in an editorial, describing the South Korean government's actions on the leaflet campaigns as "a challenge and a declaration of war against us."

"Regardless of how it plays out afterward, our people have an iron will to rightfully take revenge on the South Korean authorities even if inter-Korean relations end up in total destruction."

Last week, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader and first vice department director of the party's Central Committee, threatened to cancel a military tension-reducing agreement made during the 2018 inter-Korean summit, as the Moon Jae-in administration has "tolerated" the anti-North propaganda campaigns. She also said the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and the joint liaison office may fall victim to the "hostility" of the South.

In response, the government said it would legislate a law to ban the leaflet campaigns.

On Thursday, Cheong Wa Dae said the government would crack down on defectors and activists flying anti-North leaflets and other items across the border tethered to balloons, and sternly respond to any violations in accordance with relevant laws, after a standing committee session of the National Security Council presided over by Chung Eui-yong, director of the National Security Office (NSO) at the presidential office.

"The government expresses deep regret over the continued distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets and other items by activists," said Kim Yu-geun, the NSO first deputy director.

"The government will keep abiding by all inter-Korean agreements to avoid accidental clashes."

Earlier in the day, the unification ministry filed a complaint with police against two North Korean defectors' groups for sending the leaflets across the border. It also plans to revoke business permits granted to them.

Alongside North Korea's state-run paper, the Tongil Voice, a propaganda radio broadcast, joined in to bash President Moon.

"When he told us to trust him, with his hands held up high in Pyongyang and Mount Paekdu, he looked human, and we thought he would be different from the past leaders. Now it looks like he is worse than his predecessors," it said.

The North also warned the U.S. not to meddle in its ongoing matters with the South, irked by a U.S. State Department spokesman urging Pyongyang to return to diplomacy and cooperation.

"This is, indeed, ridiculous. No one is entitled to saying this or that about the inter-Korean relations as the relations pertain to the internal affairs of the Korean nation from A to Z," Kwon Jong-gun, director-general of the North Korean foreign ministry's American affairs department, told the Korean Central News Agency, Thursday.

"If the U.S. pokes its nose into others' affairs with careless remarks, far from minding its internal affairs, at a time when its political situation is in the worst-ever confusion, it may encounter an unpleasant thing hard to deal with.

"The U.S. had better hold its tongue and mind its internal affairs first if it doesn't want to experience a hair-raiser. It would be good not only for the U.S. interests but also for the easy holding of its upcoming presidential election."

However, Kwon failed to elaborate on what the "hair-raiser" would be ― although speculation is rampant that the North's current hostile policy toward the South and the U.S. may lead to a military provocation, including the launching of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).

"The North is expected to test an SLBM to complete its development within this year as the U.S. government cannot afford to focus on North Korean issues, and U.S. President Donald Trump has been lenient on such launches," said Cheong Seong-chang, a director of the Sejong Institute's Center for North Korean Studies.

"While staging SLBM tests, it may test-fire other new weapons as well."