Careful! Leaflets Can Carry Coronavirus, Warns North Korea

Picture courtesy Reuters

Can coronavirus be transmitted through leaflets sent via balloons?

If the leadership in North Korea is to be believed, they can.

North Korea recently warned its citizens to stay away from leaflets that were sent via balloons from South Korea as they could carry coronavirus, WION reported.

An anti-North Korea activist group stated that it had sent balloons to North Korea with dollar bills and leaflets denouncing the government in Pyongyang.

According to news agency Yonhap, a North Korean state-run newspaper wrote when a “strange object” comes across through wind, it should be considered as a potential route of the “malicious virus.”

The paper further advised people to “think and move” as per COVID-19 guidelines.

The anti-North group claimed it had released 10 advertising balloons from border regions, containing 500,000 leaflets, 500 booklets and 5,000 one-dollar bills.

South Korean police raided the Seoul office of the activist group ‘Fighters for Free North Korea’ — headed by Park Sang-hak who defected to South Korea in 2000 — on the basis of a search and seizure warrant.