North Korea suspends sending garbage balloons to South Korea

Hyunsu Yim

03/06/2024

SEOUL, June 2 (Reuters) – North Korea said on Sunday it would stop sending balloons carrying trash over the border to South Korea but vowed to resume the practice if anti-North Korean leaflets are flown over again from the South.

Kim Kang Il, vice-minister of North Korea’s defence in a statement published by the state media outlet KCNA, said that South Korea had already experienced how difficult it is to collect waste after North Korea used 3,500 balloons to send 15 tons.

South Korea has said that it will take “unacceptable” measures to punish North Korea for sending trash balloons across the border. This could include loudspeakers blasting propaganda at the North.

The announcement came after a meeting with his National Security Council to discuss a possible response to the more than 700 trash-filled balloons that Pyongyang had sent across its heavily fortified border in an attempt to annoy Seoul.

The council described the balloons and GPS jamming as “irrational acts of provocation”.

A senior official in Yoon’s Office told reporters that Seoul had not ruled out the possibility of resuming loudspeaker blasts. they were stopped in 2018 following a summit between Kim Jong Un and South Korea.

Since the 1950-1953 Korean War was ended by an armistice, not a peace agreement, the democratic South and communist North are technically still at war. Seoul, a close ally of the United States, regularly conducts drills with its military. Pyongyang on the other hand is developing nuclear and missile technology which Washington and Seoul say is in violation of U.N. Resolutions.

North Korea said that its balloons were a retaliation against a propaganda campaign carried out by North Korean defectors in South Korea. They regularly sent inflatables with anti-Pyongyang flyers, food, medicines, money, and USB sticks containing K-pop music videos, dramas, and other materials across the border.

Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea said that North Korean balloons, carrying trash such as paper, plastic, cigarette butts and cloth were seen in Seoul between 8 pm on Saturday and 1 pm on Sunday (1100 GMT Saturday to 0400 GMT Sunday).

The military said they were monitoring the starting point, and doing aerial reconnaissance in order to find and collect the balloons that had large bags of garbage suspended underneath them.

Local media showed footage of South Korean officers with guns picking up what looked like trash from the balloons within cordoned off areas.

North Korea sent hundreds of balloons containing trash and what was labeled as manure over the border on Wednesday as “gifts of genuineness”. Seoul reacted angrily by calling the move dangerous and base.

North Korea hasn’t commented on the weekend ballons.

According to South Korea’s army, South Korean Defence minister Shin Won Sik informed U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd on Sunday at a conference held in Singapore that the balloons were in violation of the armistice accord.

It said that the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to a coordinated response based on a combined defense posture of South Korea and the United States in response to any North Korean provocations or threats.

On Sunday, emergency alerts were sent out in North Gyeongsang province and Gangwon Province as well as some parts of Seoul. The alerts urged people to not touch the balloons or alert the police.

Hyunsu Yam is reporting; William Mallard, Michael Perry, and Giles Elgood are editing.

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