North Korea has dispatched some 1 million anti-South propaganda leaflets in the past several days in apparent retaliation to Seoul’s recent restart of loudspeaker broadcasts across the border, the Defense Ministry here said Monday.

The fliers -- first retrieved last Wednesday -- continued to be found in the northern parts of Seoul, Goyang, Paju and other Gyeonggi Province regions, the military and police said. There are several editions but most of them call for a halt of the broadcasts, threaten a military strike, and condemn the Park Geun-hye government and the U.S.’ “hostile” policy toward Pyongyang.

“They are being dispatched every day. So far about 1 million leaflets are presumed to have been dispersed, and we (the military) have collected a considerable number of them,” ministry spokesperson Kim Min-seok said at a news briefing.

“But the locations are very limited, mostly around northern Gyeonggi localities and some Seoul areas.”

The North is believed to be packing the brochures in plastic balloons with a timer and detonator before sending them across the border. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff has said that it has detected their launch operations, though it was difficult to tally precisely how many were dispatched and discovered. 

The move appears to be designed to counter Seoul’s ongoing broadcast campaign that was reinitiated on Jan. 8 in a first penal step against Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test two days prior.

Though the North has also reactivated its own loudspeakers for anti-Seoul broadcasts, officials here argue its effect is “minimal” because of the outdated equipment.

Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry last Friday slammed the South’s campaign as an “offbeat provocation,” urging an immediate halt.

“North Korea’s broadcasts can reach a mere 1 to 3 kilometers, compared to ours which can be heard more than 10 kilometers away,” the spokesman noted. “That means beyond the 10 kilometer radius, it’s only our loudspeakers that people from both sides can listen to.”

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)