Conflicts: South Korea: North Korea sends garbage balloons across border again

According to South Korea, North Korea has once again sent numerous balloons with plastic bags full of garbage across the heavily militarized border between the two countries. Between Saturday and Sunday morning (local time), around 330 “garbage balloons” were launched from North Korea, the General Staff in the capital Seoul said. More than 80 of them landed on South Korean territory. The rest probably did not reach their destination.

The bags attached to the plane contained waste paper and plastic, among other things. Initial investigations showed that they did not contain any dangerous substances, it was said. People were nevertheless asked not to touch the landed objects.

North Korea’s balloon campaigns are a reaction to similar activities by South Korean groups, who repeatedly send thousands of leaflets and other propaganda material across the border using huge gas balloons. In the leaflets, they criticize the authoritarian leadership of the isolated neighboring country. The propaganda activities of the South Korean activists are considered controversial in South Korea.

Pyongyang reacts sensitively to propaganda from outside

According to South Korean media reports, two different groups carried out such leaflet campaigns on Thursday and Friday. Pyongyang is usually sensitive to propaganda from outside and accuses the government in Seoul of supporting such balloon campaigns by private groups. Since the end of May, North Korea has sent more than 1,000 balloons filled with waste products and some with liquid manure to South Korea.

In view of the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula, South Korea’s government recently decided to suspend a 2018 military agreement with North Korea on confidence-building measures at the border. This paved the way, among other things, for the resumption of military exercises near the military demarcation line and possible propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers towards the North.