South Korea's Incheon International Airport was temporarily shut down following the People's Democratic Republic of Korea's (DPRK) overnight launch of over 250 trash-filled balloons on Wednesday.

Airport operations were temporarily disrupted by a balloon landing at Terminal 2, resulting in the closure of three runways, and leading to several flight delays.

The balloons landed in Seoul and the northern province of Gyeonggi-do. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) stated, “no hazardous substances” were found in the balloons, where over 100 mainly contained waste paper. 

This is the sixth launch the DPRK carried out this month in retaliation to anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets, radios, and USB thumb drives distributed by anti-Pyongyang DPRK defectors and South Koreans. 

Retaliating to S. Korea's measures

In 2020, South Korea's Constitutional Court invalidated a law criminalizing the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, citing it as an undue restriction on free speech. Consequently, experts argue that there are currently no legal grounds for the government to intervene in South Koreans' balloon launches into the DPRK. 

In a pointed response, Kim Yo Jong, the Deputy Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the Workers' Party of Korea and influential sister of Kim Jong Un, derided South Korea's objections to the balloons, asserting that DPRK citizens were simply exercising their freedom of expression.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have endured for an extended period as a result of systemic escalation on the part of Japan, the US, and South Korea.

The three nations have been conducting joint naval drills in the peninsula and along the demilitarized zone, which has triggered major security concerns on the part of DPRK.