N. Korea denounces aid to activists

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- North Korea says proposals by South Korea's ruling conservative party to fund distribution of anti-Pyongyang flyers by conservative activists are "poisonous."

Two legislators from the ruling Grand National Party have proposed motions to expand Seoul's role in funding private efforts to drop leaflets from hot air balloons over North Korea denouncing the regime's human rights record and urging readers to defect, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Sunday.

The measures would call on the government to provide the activist groups with up to $218,000 to fund the balloon flights. But Pyongyang, which has recently placed new restrictions on travel across the shared border to retaliate against Seoul's hardline stance toward the North, called the proposals "poisonous laws that imitate the anti-North Korea laws in the United States."

Tongil Shinbo, Pyongyang's weekly magazine, added, "It goes without saying what will happen to the relationship between the two Koreas after such laws are established," Yonhap reported.