South Korea promises strong reaction to North’s balloon litter
Published on: June 3, 2024.
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South Korea to Take Strong Measures Against North Korea for Trash Balloons
South Korea has announced that it will take “unendurable” measures against North Korea for sending trash balloons over the border. These measures could include blaring propaganda from loudspeakers back at the North. The decision was made after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s National Security Council meeting to discuss a response to the more than 700 balloons carrying trash that Pyongyang sent over the heavily fortified border.
The council condemned the balloons and GPS jamming as an “irrational act of provocation.” South Korea did not rule out resuming the loudspeaker blasts, which were stopped in 2018 after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two countries technically remain at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice. Seoul and Washington accuse Pyongyang of violating UN resolutions with its missile and nuclear technology development.
North Korea claimed that the balloons were in retaliation for a propaganda campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea. These individuals regularly send inflatables containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, food, medicine, money, and USB sticks loaded with K-pop music videos and dramas across the border.
The North Korean balloons carrying garbage such as cigarette butts, cloth, paper waste, and plastic were found across Seoul. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the military is monitoring the starting point and conducting aerial reconnaissance to track down and collect the balloons, which have large bags of trash suspended beneath them.
South Korean officers were seen picking up and bagging the trash from the balloons in cordoned-off areas. The South Korean Defense Minister, Shin Won-sik, also informed US Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd at a conference in Singapore that the balloons violated the armistice agreement.
Emergency alerts were issued in North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces, as well as parts of Seoul, urging people to avoid contact with the balloons and to alert the police.
This article was sourced from *Tribune*. Source
