SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea has floated hundreds more trash-filled balloons southward, Seoul’s military said yesterday, the latest salvo in the two countries’ tit-for-tat campaigns of provocation and propaganda.
North Korea has launched more than 900 trash balloons over the past three days, including about 190 late on Friday, around 100 of which have already landed, mainly in Seoul and northern Gyeonggi province, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The bags attached to the balloons contained “mostly paper and plastic waste”, the military said, adding they posed no safety risk to the public.
North Korea has sent nearly 5,000 trash-filled balloons south since May, saying they are retaliation for propaganda balloons launched northwards by South Korean activists.
In response, Seoul has suspended a tension-reducing military deal with Pyongyang and restarted some propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.
