In a fresh act of retaliation, North Korea has resumed sending balloons, likely carrying trash, toward South Korea. This comes just days after North Korea vowed to respond to new leafleting activities by South Korean civilians. The South Korean military confirmed the presence of these balloons north of Seoul, about an hour’s drive from the border.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement warning the public to report any balloons found on the ground. Since May, North Korea has launched over 2,000 balloons filled with wastepaper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts, and manure toward South Korea.
These actions are reportedly in response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets to the North using their balloons. However, no hazardous materials have been found in these balloons.
South Korea’s Response
In reaction to these provocations, South Korea has suspended a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea. The South briefly restarted propaganda broadcasts and conducted live-fire military drills at the border. These Cold War-style campaigns had ceased after North Korea last sent trash-filled balloons in late June.
Earlier this week, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, claimed that South Korean balloons have again been found in North Korea. She threatened new retaliatory measures, warning that South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price.” This raised concerns that North Korea might resort to physical provocations instead of balloon launches.
In response to the threats, South Korea’s military announced on Wednesday that it has increased its readiness to brace for any North Korean provocations. The military also noted that North Korea might fire at incoming South Korean balloons.
It remains unclear whether South Korean groups have recently sent leaflets to North Korea. For years, activists, often led by North Korean defectors, have used helium-filled balloons to drop anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks containing K-pop music and South Korean dramas, and US dollar bills into the North. North Korea views these activities as serious security threats and a challenge to its ban on foreign news for most of its 26 million people.
In 2020, North Korea destroyed an unoccupied South Korean-built liaison office on its territory in response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2014, North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory, and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.
Tensions between the Koreas have increased in recent years due to North Korea’s missile tests and the expansion of US-South Korean military drills, which North Korea calls invasion rehearsals. The current situation underscores the fragile and volatile nature of relations on the Korean Peninsula.
Comments