(CNN) — North Korea launched more garbage balloons into South Korea this Saturday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The launch is part of a new strategy with which Kim Jong Un’s government confronts its southern neighbor: sending floating bags of garbage containing “filth” across the border, transported in huge flying balloons.
In an official statement, the JCS warned the public to be aware of objects falling from the sky and not to touch fallen balloons. The Seoul government also alerted residents, saying: “The military is taking action regarding unidentified objects, believed to be anti-South Korea leaflets, which have been seen in the air near Seoul.” .
“Please refrain from outdoor activities, do not touch unidentified objects and report to the military or police,” it said.
Why does Pyongyang do it?
South Korea’s military began noticing the arrival of “large numbers of balloons” from the north starting Tuesday night, detecting more than 150 as of Wednesday morning, according to the JCS.
Photos released by the JCS show plastic bags being carried by two giant balloons, with some torn packages spilling pieces of plastic, sheets of paper and what appears to be dirt onto roads and sidewalks.
So far, the balloons contained “filth and garbage” and are being analyzed by government agencies, the JCS said, adding that the military was cooperating with the United Nations Command.
This Saturday is the second time this week that North Korea has sent garbage balloons to the South, which Pyongyang’s top official, Kim Yo Jong, referred to as “freedom of expression.”
According to North Korean state media KCNA, the launches are in retaliation against South Korean activists who often send materials to the North, including propaganda leaflets, food, medicine, radios and USB sticks containing South Korean news and television dramas, all of which are banned. in the country, isolated totalitarian dictatorship.
Activists in the South, including North Korean defectors, have long sent these materials via balloons, drones and floating bottles down rivers, even after South Korea’s parliament banned such actions in 2020.
“Dispersing leaflets by using balloons is a dangerous provocation that can be used for a specific military purpose,” said Kim Kang Il, North Korea’s vice minister of national defense, KCNA reported Sunday.
He accused South Korea of using “psychological warfare” by spreading “various dirty things” near the border areas, and declared that the North would take “tit-for-tat measures.”
“Piles of used paper and garbage will soon be scattered across the border areas and interior of (South Korea) and it will be directly experienced how much effort is required to eliminate them,” Kim said, according to KCNA. “When our sovereignty, security and national interests are violated, we will take immediate action.”
Kim also condemned joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which have increased in recent years as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen.
With reporting from CNN’s Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo.
