North Korea has launched approximately 600 additional balloons filled with trash, including items like cigarette butts and plastic, across the border into South Korea, as reported by Seoul’s military on Sunday. The security forces are actively collecting these balloons as they land.
According to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), North Korea restarted the release of these waste-filled balloons around 8 p.m. on Saturday. By 10 a.m. on Sunday, they had identified around 600 balloons, with an estimated 20 to 50 balloons per hour drifting through the air.
Earlier this week, North Korea began sending hundreds of balloons containing bags of rubbish and excrement, referring to them as “gifts of sincerity” and promising more to come.
On Saturday, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik condemned the act as “unimaginably petty and low-grade behavior,” warning that Seoul would take strong countermeasures if Pyongyang did not cease these “irrational” provocations.
Since the campaign began on Tuesday, the JCS reported that about 900 balloons have been launched. So far, the collected balloons have contained waste such as cigarette butts, scrap paper, fabric pieces, and plastic. The JCS reassured that no hazardous substances had been found in these balloons.
The South Korean military is conducting surveillance and reconnaissance from the launch points, tracking them via aerial reconnaissance, and prioritizing public safety in the collection of fallen debris. They have urged the public to avoid contact with the balloons and to report them to the nearest military unit or police station.
The Seoul city government sent a text alert to residents on Saturday, warning them about “unidentified objects presumed to be North Korean propaganda leaflets.”
North Korea defended its actions earlier this week, stating that the “sincere gifts” were in retaliation for balloons sent into North Korea carrying propaganda against leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea has long been angered by the balloons sent by South Korean activists, which sometimes contain anti-Pyongyang leaflets, cash, rice, or USB drives with South Korean dramas.
In 2018, during a phase of improved inter-Korean relations, the leaders of both Koreas agreed to cease all hostile acts against each other, including the distribution of leaflets. Despite a 2020 South Korean law criminalizing the act of sending leaflets to the North, activists continued their efforts. That same year, North Korea, blaming the leaflets, severed all official military and political communication with the South and demolished an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border.
Last year, South Korea’s constitutional court invalidated the 2020 law, deeming it an undue restriction on free speech. Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, mocked South Korea for its complaints, asserting that North Koreans were merely exercising their freedom of expression.
