Hot air over Koreas — fresh balloon flights into North spark tension

The North’s threatening rhetoric in the face of the moves has largely been shrugged off in Seoul. No unusual military movements have been detected in the North, and South Koreans — long familiar with Pyongyang’s verbal bombast — are not diving into bunkers.

“If you take the correlation between North Korean threats and North Korea carrying them out, there is not a high correlation,” said Go Myong-hyun, a North Korea specialist at the Asan Institute, a Seoul think tank. “What [Pyongyang] says often does not translate into actual action.”

Militarily, North Korea is deterred by the South Korea-U.S. alliance. The security impact of the anti-Kim leaflets is likely low.

“If a leaflet falls on a North Koreans’ head, it will not turn that North Korean into a freedom fighter,” Mr. Go said.

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