- North Korea drops waste-filled balloons on the South in a propaganda war
- Seoul has condemned the balloon attack as ‘low class’ and ‘inhumane’
Kim Jong Un has dropped at least 260 white balloons filled with “filthy trash and rubbish” on South Korea, as North Korean officials try to teach them a lesson amid a never-ending propaganda war.
The balloons appeared to be carrying various types of waste, including plastic bottles, batteries, toilet paper and likely manure, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.
Authorities urged South Korean residents to stay indoors after balloons began falling from the sky late Tuesday.
The South Korean military said unidentified objects had been spotted near the demilitarized zone – the heavily fortified border separating the two Koreas.
The balloons, found in eight of South Korea’s nine provinces, are now being analyzed and examined to see if they contain North Korean propaganda. BBC reported.
A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea and containing various objects including garbage and feces was spotted above a rice field in Cheorwon, South Korea on Wednesday.
South Korean soldiers collect balloons believed to have been sent by North Korea and found on a hill in Pyeongtaek on Wednesday. About 200 such balloons have been discovered across the country so far, military and police sources said, adding that they mainly contain garbage and other debris.
The image shows unidentified objects believed to be North Korean propaganda material attached to balloons on a street in Chungnam province.
This comes just days after Kim Kang-il, a North Korean deputy defense minister, warned that the regime would retaliate in response to anti-North Korean leaflets flown across the border by South Korean activists.
“Heaps of waste paper and dirt will soon be scattered across the border areas and inland areas of the ROK and it will be a direct experience of the effort required to remove them,” Kang Il said in a statement to state media on Sunday.
Republic of Korea, or ROK, is the official name of South Korea.
Seoul’s JCS added that the North’s actions “clearly violate international laws and seriously threaten the security of our people.”
“We strongly warn the North to immediately stop its inhumane and low-grade actions.”
Image of waste coming out of a balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea in Seoul on Wednesday.
In another sign of tensions between the war-divided rivals, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has also been flying large numbers of waste balloons towards the South since Tuesday evening, in apparent retaliation against South Korean activists for flying anti-aircraft bombs. -weapons of war. Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.
South Korean media shared images showing garbage bags tied to large white balloons floating over fields and roads, as well as the aftermath of landings where what appeared to be feces had exploded on the ground.
North and South Korea have historically used balloons in their propaganda campaigns since the Korean War in the 1950s.
North Korean defectors are known to send balloons to the North Side containing anti-regime leaflets, as well as reportedly USB memory sticks containing Korean pop music and videos, which are banned under North Korea’s communist regime.
Seoul Parliament has passed a law in December 2020, the launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets was banned.
This comes after Kim Jong Un’s latest satellite launch ended in failure on Monday after a video shared by South Korea claimed to show the moment the satellite, attached to a spiky white rocket, exploded shortly after takeoff.
North Korea admitted the launch exploded in a fireball and ended up in the Yellow Sea just minutes after takeoff.
The launch, seen by analysts as a major step in the nuclear-armed country’s race for space, was the latest attempt since North Korea put its first spy satellite into orbit in November.