South Korean police said Sunday they have received over 800 reports related to trash-filled balloons sent by North Korea.

The National Police Agency said 860 reports on balloons had been filed between 9 p.m. last Tuesday and 5 p.m. Sunday. Police added that 581 of those reports were on the actual sightings of balloons, while 279 reports were filed by those inquiring about the government’s emergency disaster text alerts.

According to police, most of the calls overnight had come from the western part of Seoul, though North Korean balloons have been spotted as far east as Taebaek in Gangwon Province and Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province.

At around 10:20 a.m. Sunday, the windshield of a vehicle parked outside a villa in Ansan, some 28 kilometers south of Seoul, was found to have been shattered by several balloons.

Earlier Sunday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it had detected some 720 balloons that floated across the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas and fell in different
parts of the country between 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. North Korea also continued jamming GPS signals for five straight days, the JCS added.

The balloons carried various pieces of trash, such as cigarette butts, paper and plastic bags, just like the previous balloons, according to the JCS.

“About 20 to 50 balloons are moving per hour through the air and coming down in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, North Chungcheong Province and North Gyeongsang Province,” a JCS official said on the condition of anonymity.

The official later stated that no additional balloons had been detected after 1 p.m.

North Korea previously sent around 260 balloons carrying trash and excrement to the South on Tuesday and Wednesday after it warned of a “tit-for-tat action” against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by the South’s activists.

The total number of balloons is similar to the total amount observed annually in the 2016-2017 period.

The JCS advised people not to touch the objects and report them to nearby military or police a
uthorities. It also warned of possible danger from the balloons.

The military dispatched teams to recover the debris instead of shooting down the balloons, as the possibility of them carrying toxic chemicals cannot be completely ruled out.

There have been no reports of injuries so far.

The Seoul city government also said Sunday that it will operate an emergency center 24 hours a day to respond to such objects.

North Korea has been jamming GPS signals near the border since Wednesday.

The North’s balloon launches come after a recent series of provocative steps, including the botched attempt to launch a spy satellite Monday. The country staged GPS jamming attacks in waters near South Korea’s northwestern border islands for the fourth straight day Saturday.

North Korea also fired a barrage of artillery from super-large multiple rocket launchers toward the East Sea on Thursday in a drill that it said was to demonstrate its resolve to conduct a preemptive strike against South Korea.

In response to North Kore
a’s balloon operations, South Korea said Sunday it will soon take “unendurable” steps that will have an immediate impact on North Korea.

It followed an warning issued by the unification ministry from Friday that it would take “unendurably” painful measures against North Korea if it continues to stage “irrational” provocative acts.

South Korea may consider staging psychological warfare against North Korea, including military authorities’ resumption of loudspeaker broadcasting along the border or the sending of leaflets critical of the North’s regime.

A senior official at the presidential office said Seoul will not rule out resuming the propaganda campaign through loudspeakers and that it will not waste its time in taking whatever action it deems necessary.

On Sunday, the defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States denounced North Korea over its latest provocations, including the launches of trash-carrying balloons and a military spy satellite.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and his U.S
. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, made the criticism as they met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Source: Yonhap News Agency