Items sent with propaganda leaflets to North Korea by groups of defectors in South Korea in March

North Korean soldiers are apparently burying propaganda packages sent by South Korean activists in ant-infested soil to determine whether the attached food is poisoned, Open Radio for North Korea claimed Friday citing a North Korean source.

"North Korean soldiers have developed a way to determine whether the food that got carried over to North Korea along with propaganda leaflets from South Korea is poisoned by digging the ground a little bit, putting the food there, and waiting to see whether ants congregate around the food or not," the source said.

In early 1990s, the North Korean regime spread propaganda that emergency relief packs and propaganda leaflets from the South contain poison and should not even be touched. However, many North Koreans soon figured out that food was not poisoned.

The regime then changed the story, saying food from South Korea does not kill immediately but slowly, by inducing continuous vomiting and diarrhea. But the soldiers developed this new way to ascertain whether the food is safe, according to Open Radio for North Korea.

"In the 1980s, if soldiers were found with propaganda leaflets [floated from South Korea], they were either taken to concentration camps or shot. But things changed in the 2000s as there were too many leaflets distributed, so they only got disciplinary punishment," a source in Hwanghae Province said. "Recently, security agents have even been selling the relief goods in the market."