A defector-activist group on Thursday night sent leaflets to North Korea carrying news of the recent South Korean election victories of two high-profile defectors, the group said Friday.

The Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK) organization released 20 balloons carrying 500,000 flyers from Ganghwa County in the South Korean city of Incheon to the North, a press release from the group said.

“Defector and a disabled orphan Ji Seong-ho and Deputy Ambassador Thae Yong Ho are National Assembly lawmakers in our fatherland Republic of Korea (ROK),” a poster attached to the balloons said.

The poster featured a photo of Ji — who appeared at U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2018 State of Union address — and Thae wearing masks and the pink jackets association with their party, the conservative United Future Party (UFP).

The leaflets — sent by seven FFNK members — were accompanied by 500 booklets, 2000 one-dollar bills, 1000 USBs, and 1000 SD cards inside 20 large balloons, according to the group’s leader, Park Sang-hak.

“The North Korean regime calls these two ‘human scum and the traitor of the people,’ but the free ROK has made these two become lawmakers of the highest legislative institution — unthinkable in North Korea,” FFNK said.

The group primarily focused on the fate of Ji Seong-ho, especially, which was transformed dramatically by his defection to the South.

The press release shared Ji’s story of experiencing the Arduous March — North Korea’s disastrous famine of the 1990’s  — and crossing the Yalu River on a crutch.

“If the news reaches the North Korean people that a disabled boy who used to be a kkotjebi (orphaned homeless child in North Korea) now became a National Assembly lawmaker, they will perceive what the liberal democracy of ROK is like — the true paradise of the people,” FFNK said.

North Korea has in the past condemned the sending of leaflets by activist groups in South Korea as “hostile acts” that are the “root cause of military tension” on the peninsula.

Long controversial in the South, too, the two Koreas previously agreed “to stop all the hostile acts including the loud-speaker broadcasting and scattering of leaflets in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL)” in April 2018.

Activist groups in South Korea have frequently defied those rules, however, occasionally facing resistance from locals and police.

Friday saw FFNK head Park say that informing his North Korean compatriots of the news of Ji and Thae’s election was “the calling and the responsibility of defectors,” stressing the activists’ intention to continue sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets.

Videos and photos shared with NK News by the FFNK showed that the group released the leaflets late at night.

However, it emerged late on Friday that some of the balloons did not reach North Korea.

According to the South Korean police, one balloon was found in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province of the South, Yonhap News Agency reported Friday. 

Ji and Thae made their debut in South Korea’s politics only a few months ago, both elected as freshmen lawmakers in April 15’s parliamentary elections.

Thae, in particular, made history becoming the first defector to win a seat representing a district.

The former North Korean diplomat had vowed to improve legal protections for fellow escapees in the run-up to the election, citing a 2019 incident in which the South Korean government repatriated two North Korean crewmen as having been the “trigger” for his decision to run.

Ji, who ran as a party list candidate, also won a seat in the April election. He recently drew criticism in South Korea for his comments on ongoing global speculation regarding North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s health.

On Friday, Ji was reported to have said he was sure that Kim had died “last weekend,” predicting that Pyongyang would announce the news this coming weekend.

Meanwhile, Thae has urged a more cautious approach, telling CNN this week that he is not sure whether reports that Kim Jong Un underwent surgery are accurate.

Rumors surrounding the issue, he said, are not “based on the facts,” adding that the only people “who can confirm his real condition might be his wife or his sister, or his close aides.”

“But one thing is clear,” he said. “He cannot stand up by himself or walk properly.”

Edited by Oliver Hotham