The South Korean Unification Ministry refused to receive a letter from a North Korean propaganda agency addressed to the South Korean presidential office, a ministry official said Thursday.

“The (North Korean) agency tried to hand over a note addressed to Cheong Wa Dae to the South in person via the Red Cross in the truce village of Panmunjeom around 3 p.m. Wednesday, but we refused to receive it,” the official said.

“The North disclosed only the sender and the recepient of the letter, without mentioning what it was about. We decided that it was not appropriate for an anti-South propaganda agency to send a note to Cheong Wa Dae.”

The Unification Ministry saw the note as part of the North’s offensive attempts to threaten the South, the official said.

“The North has often declined to receive (the South’s) messages which they saw as disadvantageous for them,” he said.

A North Korean state media reported Wednesday evening that the agency named the Committee for Peaceful Unification of Fatherland tried to send an emergency message to the South Korean government through Panmunjeom, but Seoul refused to receive it. So, the committee decided to make its content publice, the Pyongyang-based Korean Central News Agency added. In the letter, the North demanded South Korean frontline troops stop using slogans slandering the North Korean regime and military.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)