(LEAD) N.K. leader's sister warns of 'new responses' against S. Korea's loudspeaker broadcast, leafleting

(ATTN: ADDS more Kim's remarks in paras 4, 7-9)

SEOUL, June 9 (Yonhap) -- The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened Sunday to take "new responses" if South Korea keeps sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border and blasting loudspeaker broadcasts, calling it a "prelude to a very dangerous situation."

The statement by Kim Yo-jong came after the South resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North in retaliation against the North's repeated sending of trash-filled balloons amid rising tensions in the inter-Korean border regions.

"Seoul's politicians are continuing to create a new crisis environment ... They are formalizing once again provocative behaviors by resuming loudspeaker provocations as a countermeasure to our challenging initiatives," Kim said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim claimed that the North was going to stop sending the balloons early this week, but it ended up flying more in response to the anti-Pyongyang leafleting by North Korean defectors and activists in the South.

"Our counteraction (of sending balloons) was to end on the 9th, but the situation has changed ... The loudspeaker broadcast provocation has finally begun in border areas. This is a prelude to a very dangerous situation," she said.

"If South Korea chooses to engage in the leaflet-scattering and loudspeaker provocations across the border, without a doubt, they will witness our new response," Kim said. Kim, however, did not specify what the new responses will be.

Kim also claimed that the North sent some 7.5 tons of "waste papers" in 1,400 balloons across the border over the weekend, arguing that they were just garbage that contained nothing related to political propaganda.

Kim warned that South Korea will face "daily life in distress of constantly having to pick up waste papers" if it continues the leafleting and loudspeaker broadcasts.

"I sternly warn that Seoul will immediately stop the dangerous acts that will lead to further confrontations and reflect on itself," she said.

elly@yna.co.kr
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