North Korean Propaganda Is Being Balloon-Dropped Into the South Ahead of Olympics

Flyers bearing North Korean propaganda were discovered Saturday in the mountains near Seoul, Reuters reports, citing a North Korea specialist news website, urging people to welcome their “guests from Pyongyang” as the Winter Olympics draw near.

North Korea will be represented at the games by a delegation including the country’s ceremonial head of state, a pop music icon and 12 ice hockey players who will join the South Korean women’s squad.

The leaflets feature images of Olympic mascots Soohorang and Bandabi — a cartoon white tiger and black bear — saying: “Let’s go to Kaesong! Let’s go to Mount Kumgang!”

Kaesong may refer to the now-shuttered industrial park just north of the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, that separates the North from the South.

Mount Kumgang was a joint tourism venture, mothballed in 2008 after a North Korean guard shot a South Korean tourist there.

The flyers also extended welcome greetings to “North Korean athletes, cheerleaders, journalists, Taekwondo display team, and performance artists.”

Read more: High Hopes for Talks as North Korea Prepares to Send a Top Official to the Olympics

According to Reuters, the leaflets were likely dropped from balloons — a delivery mechanism Seoul also uses to dispatch foreign news and other propaganda north of the DMZ.