In the tenth launch of trash balloons since May, Kim Jong-u decided to attack the presidential office and the Ministry of Defense of South Korea. Seoul responds with more anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
North Korea sent more balloons toward South Korea on Wednesday and at least one, loaded with trash, crashed on the grounds of the presidential office, the Presidential Security Service said.
The Presidential Security Service, cited by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, said it discovered garbage dumped on the grounds of the presidential compound while monitoring the latest batch of balloons launched by the North earlier in the day.
“An investigation by the chemical, biological and radiological response team showed that the The objects did not represent any danger or contamination.which is why they were recovered,” the service said.
“We continue to monitor in cooperation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” he added.
North Korean balloons will also have fallen into facilities of the South Korean Ministry of Defense, reported a local media outlet cited by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
This is the tenth such launch by North Korea since late May. The more than two thousand giant balloons launched towards South Korea were paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even excrement.
North Korea resumes launching garbage balloons over South Korea
Pyongyang has said it was a response to South Korean activists sending balloons containing political leaflets to North Korea.
Experts said Pyongyang views such South Korean civilian launches as a threat to its efforts to keep out foreign news and maintain authoritarian rule.
In response to the balloons being sent, Pyongyang destroyed a South Korean liaison office in North Korea in 2020 and fired at the balloons on another occasion, AP wrote.
The North Korean balloons did not cause serious damage but raised security concerns, with fears that North Korea could use them to launch dangerous materials such as chemical and biological agents.
On Sunday, South Korea said that in response to the garbage balloons, it is intensify the dissemination of propaganda against Pyongyang from loudspeakers along the land border.
On Thursday, Seoul restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in about 40 days.
Observers said such broadcasts could demoralize North Korean troops on the front line and residents in the border area.
In 2015, North Korea fired artillery shells across the border in response to South Korean propaganda broadcasts, prompting Seoul to respond.
South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Sung-joon said the ongoing South Korean broadcasts include K-pop songs and news about South Korea’s economic development.
South Korean media also reported that news of a North Korean diplomat’s recent defection to the South is spreading, with others calling the mine-laying work carried out by North Korean soldiers on the border a “hellish, slave-like life.”
South Korea’s military has warned of stronger measures if the North continues sending balloons.
In the neighboring North, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, threatened new measures against South Korean leaflets and warned that South Korean “scum” must be willing to pay “a horrible and expensive price” for their actions.
Source: Observadora
