Seoul, South Korea — According to South Korea’s military, North Korea released hundreds of more balloons carrying garbage toward South Korea following a similar campaign a few days earlier in what Pyongyang says is retaliation for activists who flew anti-North Korea leaflets across the border.
From Saturday night to Sunday morning, nearly 600 balloons launched from North Korea were found in various parts of South Korea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday that the balloons contained cigarette butts, pieces of cloth, waste paper and vinyl, but did not contain any hazardous substances.
The military has advised people to be cautious of falling objects and not to touch any suspicious objects coming from North Korea, but to report them to military or police offices. There have been no reports of any injuries or damage.
In Seoul, the city government sent a message warning that unidentified objects suspected to have come from North Korea had been spotted in the sky near the city and that the military was cracking down on them.
The balloon launch is among a series of recent provocative moves by North Korea, including its failed spy satellite launch and the launch of short-range missiles, which the North said were aimed at demonstrating its ability to preemptively strike the South.
South Korea’s military dispatched chemical rapid reaction and explosive clearance teams to recover debris from about 260 North Korean balloons found in various parts of the country from Tuesday night to Wednesday. The military said the balloons contained various kinds of garbage and manure, but no hazardous materials such as chemical, biological or radioactive substances. Some of the balloons were fitted with timers, suggesting they were designed to burst the garbage bags in mid-air.
In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, confirmed that North Korea had sent the balloons to carry out her country’s recent threat to “spread piles of waste paper and rubbish” in South Korea in response to a campaign by South Korean activists to distribute leaflets.
He hinted that balloons may become the standard response to North Korean leaflets in the future, saying North Korea would respond by “spreading dozens of times more garbage than we do here.”
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Friday that North Korea must stop provocative activities – including missile launches and other actions – or face unspecified “intolerable” consequences.
South Korea’s military has said it has no plans to shoot down the balloons because they could cause damage or contain dangerous materials. Shooting at the balloons near the border could also risk retaliation from North Korea at this time of tension.
“(We) decided it would be best to shoot down the balloons and bring them back safely,” Lee Sung-joon, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing on Thursday.
North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside attempt to undermine Kim Jong Un’s absolute control over the country’s 26 million people, most of whom have little access to foreign news.
In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory after South Korea’s fierce response to a campaign to distribute leaflets to its citizens. In 2014, North Korea shot at propaganda balloons flying towards its territory and South Korea fired back, though there were no casualties.
In 2022, North Korea even said balloons flown from South Korea caused the COVID-19 outbreak in the isolated nation, a highly dubious claim that appeared to be an attempt to blame the South for worsening inter-Korean relations.
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Associated Press writer Hyung-Jin Kim contributed to this report.
