North Korea has launched hundreds more balloons carrying trash toward South Korea over the past two days, Seoul’s military said Sunday, amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang’s continued balloon campaign.
As of 10 a.m., the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it had detected some 330 waste-carrying balloons launched by the North since Saturday, with more than 80 of them landing inside South Korea and the rest apparently failing to reach the country.
The latest balloons appeared to be carrying trash, such as scraps of paper and plastic, the JCS said, noting that it was preparing for the possibility of the North launching additional balloons.
The latest balloon campaign came after South Korean civic groups’ launch of large balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda to the North between Thursday and Friday.
Since May 28, the North has staged the balloon campaign, which it described as a “tit-for-tat” response to anti-Pyongyang leafleting by activists in South Korea. It launched nearly 1,000 trash-carrying ba
lloons into the South late last month and early last week.
Last Sunday, the North announced it would temporarily suspend the balloon campaign after Seoul warned of “unendurable” countermeasures, but threatened to send “a hundred times the amount of toilet paper and filth” in response to any further leafleting from the South.
The Seoul metropolitan government said it has received reports of about 30 of these balloons as of 8 a.m.
Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, a port city west of Seoul, also reported balloons in various locations, including at the Yellow Sea and other residential areas south of the border with North Korea.
So far, no casualties or property damage have been reported.
Authorities advised people not to touch the objects and to report them to nearby military or police authorities, warning of possible damage from the balloons.
The government said it will operate an emergency response team to ensure public safety and consult with military authorities to come up with “fundamental measures” agai
nst Pyongyang’s repeated balloon campaigns.
“North Korea is once again conducting despicable provocations by sending trash balloons to our civilian regions,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon wrote on Facebook on Saturday night.
In response, the defense ministry issued an emergency order for all troops to be on standby.
“Our military is taking North Korea’s additional launches of waste balloons very seriously. It is crucial for the defense ministry and the entire military to remain in a heightened state of vigilance and operational discipline to respond immediately to North Korea’s sending of trash balloons and additional provocations,” the ministry said.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
