Kim Jong Un launches more rubbish-carrying balloons across southern border in retaliation for Seoul dropping anti-North Korean leaflets

Kim Jong Un has launched more waste-bearing balloons toward South Korea after the South Korean military said about 260 were sent earlier this week, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, balloons containing various types of waste, including plastic bottles, batteries, toilet paper and suspected manure, were dropped in eight of South Korea’s nine provinces, an official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing anonymous military sources, said officials found about 90 new balloons dropping paper, plastic waste and cigarette butts in areas in the capital Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province on Saturday evening.

The military advised people to be wary of falling objects and not to touch items suspected of coming from North Korea, but instead report them to the military or police. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

In Seoul, the city government sent text message alerts saying that unidentified objects suspected of having flown from North Korea had been detected in the sky near the city and the military was responding.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, balloons containing various types of waste, including plastic bottles, batteries, toilet paper and suspected manure, were dropped in eight of South Korea’s nine provinces.

The North’s balloon launches added to a recent series of provocative moves, including the failed launch of spy satellites and a barrage of short-range missiles launched this week, which the North said was intended to demonstrate its ability to attack the South to attack preventively.

The South Korean military has sent chemical rapid response and explosive ordnance disposal teams to recover the debris of some 260 North Korean balloons found in various parts of the country from Tuesday evening to Wednesday.

The military said the balloons carried various types of waste and manure, but not hazardous materials such as chemical, biological or radioactive materials. Some of the balloons were found with timers suggesting they were designed to pop the bags of waste in the air.

In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, confirmed that the North sent the balloons to counter her country’s recent threat to “spread heaps of waste paper and filth” in South – Korea to make it happen. to leaflet campaigns by South Korean activists.

Image of waste coming out of a balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea in Seoul 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.

She hinted that balloons could become the North’s default response to leaflet distribution, saying the North would respond by spreading “dozens of times more waste than the waste thrown at us.”

The South Korean military has said it has no plans to shoot down the balloons because it is concerned about causing damage or the possibility that they could contain dangerous substances. Firing balloons near the border would also risk retaliation from the North at a time of high tensions.

“(We) decided it was best to drop the balloons and retrieve them safely,” Lee Sung Joon, spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing Thursday.

North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside attempt to undermine Kim Jong Un’s absolute control over the country’s 26 million residents, most of whom have little access to foreign news.

A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea and containing several objects, including what appeared to be trash and feces, was spotted above a rice field in Cheorwon, South Korea, on Wednesday.

In another sign of tensions between the war-divided rivals, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has also flown large numbers of balloons containing waste to the South since Tuesday evening, in apparent retaliation against South Korean activists for flying with anti-war weapons. Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border

In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory after a furious response to South Korean civilian leaflet campaigns.

In 2014, North Korea fired at propaganda balloons flying toward its territory and South Korea fired back, although there were no casualties.

In 2022, North Korea even suggested that balloons flown from South Korea had caused a COVID-19 outbreak in the isolated country, a highly dubious claim that appeared to be an attempt to blame the South for the worsening international -Korean relations.