SEOUL: North Korea has sent a rare message to the South Korean president’s office, demanding an end to anti-Pyongyang leaflet launches into the North, officials said yesterday.
The message, addressed to the presidential Blue House, was sent through a military hotline on Monday by the North’s powerful National Defence Commission (NDC), the South’s unification ministry said.
The message urged Seoul to stop anti-North activists sending leaflets over the border by balloon, and said action would have to be taken before the North would consider the South’s recent proposal for high-level talks.
Civic groups in the South regularly float leaflets over the border with messages criticising the Kim dynasty and urging the North Korean people to rise up against repression.
Police have prevented some events when the risk of a North Korean retaliation has been deemed dangerously high, but otherwise they are allowed to go ahead.
Strong quake hits Japan
TOKYO: Buildings in Tokyo shook yesterday as a strong quake hit Japan, reporters in the city said, but there was no immediate risk of a tsunami and no damage was reported.
Seismologists said the epicentre was around 44 kilometres north-northeast of the Japanese capital and was located around 50 kilometres below the surface.
The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.6. Their Japanese counterparts said there was no danger of a tsunami from the tremor, the effects of which could be felt in buildings for more than a minute after the initial shaking began.
The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was battered by a tsunami after a powerful undersea quake in 2011, said nothing unusual had been noted at the still-fragile site.
“There was no abnormality in our monitoring at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the earthquake. Also, we have not received any reports of damage from the latest quake,” spokesman Keisuke Murakami said.
The Japan Atomic Power Co said the Tokai No.2 Power Station, which was nearest to the epicentre of the quake, showed no signs of any problems. Agencies
