North Korea announced on Sunday that it would halt the practice of sending balloons carrying garbage into the skies above the border with South Korea. However, it threatened to resume this action if it receives anti-North Korea leaflets flown from South Korea again. Seoul responded angrily, calling the move both despicable and dangerous.
According to a statement by Kim Kang Il, Deputy Minister of the North Korean Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, released by the official media outlet Korean Central News Agency, North Korea sent 15 tons of trash to South Korea using 3,500 balloons, causing annoyance to the South Korean side.
North Korea claimed that the balloon trash was sent in retaliation for propaganda activities conducted by North Korean defectors and South Korean activists who frequently send inflatable devices filled with anti-North Korea leaflets, food, medicine, money, as well as USB drives containing South Korean pop music videos and dramas to the North Korean border.
South Korea has stated that it will take measures against North Korea’s balloon trash-sending practice that are “unbearable,” which may include using loudspeakers for propaganda directed at North Korea.
Prior to the statement released by the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the South Korean National Security Council convened a meeting to discuss how to respond to what Seoul described as provocative acts by North Korea of sending over 700 garbage balloons over the heavily guarded South Korean border.
The council condemned the balloons and concurrent Global Positioning System (GPS) interference as “unreasonable provocations.”
A senior official from Moon Jae-in’s office told reporters that South Korea does not rule out the possibility of resuming the use of loudspeakers for blasting propaganda. South Korea had ceased this practice after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that from Saturday night at 8 p.m. to Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. (Greenwich Mean Time, from 11 p.m. on Saturday to 4 a.m. on Sunday), balloons from North Korea containing cigarette butts, cloth, waste paper, and plastic were found in various locations in Seoul.
Military officials mentioned that the military is monitoring the origin of these garbage balloons as they ascend and conducting aerial reconnaissance to track and collect them, with large bags of trash suspended beneath these balloons.
Footage captured by local media shows South Korean officers armed with rifles collecting the trash from the balloons within the restricted zone and bagging them.
According to the South Korean military, Defense Minister Shin Won-Sik informed U.S. Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd during a meeting in Singapore on Sunday that these balloons violated the armistice agreement.
Both sides reiterated their commitment to coordinate responses to any threats and provocations from North Korea based on the foundation of the U.S.-South Korea alliance’s joint defense posture.
Emergency alerts were issued on Sunday in some areas of South Korea’s Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gangwon-do, and Seoul, urging people not to touch the balloons and to report to the authorities.