South Korea on Wednesday held an interagency meeting to discuss safety measures against North Korea’s recent series of provocative acts, including its sending of trash-carrying balloons, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The meeting, led by Lt. Gen. Lee Seung-oh, chief director of operations at the JCS, took place after the North sent around 1,000 trash-carrying balloons since last Tuesday and made attempts to jam GPS navigation signals in waters near the South’s northwestern border islands.

The meeting, attended by some 40 officials from various relevant agencies and ministries, including the National Police Agency, the Coast Guard, the defense ministry and the science ministry, discussed ways to minimize confusion among the public from the North’s provocations and prevent damage.

It assessed the North’s recent series of provocative acts, as well as the possible motive behind them, while examining each agency’s response measures and their coordination efforts to ensure public safety, the JCS said.

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In order to solidify the cooperation system between agencies and measures to ensure public safety in the event of North Korea’s various provocations, (we) will push for the matters discussed today into tasks, such as the real-time situation alert system and response measures by situation,” Lee said at the meeting, according to the JCS.

Source: Yonhap News Agency