Trash-filled balloons once again take flight in South Korean skies
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The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff cautioned the public against handling the balloons if found and urged them to promptly report any sightings to authorities.
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This photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, shows trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Seoul, South Korea, on May 29, 2024 (South Korea Presidential Office via AP, File)
The South Korean military claimed on Saturday that the DPRK has once again launched trash-filled balloons toward South Korea.
"North Korea is again floating (suspected) balloons carrying trash towards the South," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff cautioned the public against handling these balloons if found and urged them to promptly report any sightings to authorities.
Both the Seoul city government and the Gyeonggi Province issued similar warnings to residents, advising them to stay alert regarding the balloons.
🇰🇵 900 and counting — North Korea's trash balloons invade South Korea
— WE News English (@WENewsEnglish) June 3, 2024
🎥 AFP pic.twitter.com/N7gQKaP7Ou
This move follows recent actions by anti-DPRK activists in the South, who previously sent balloons loaded with propaganda leaflets criticizing the DPRK to the republic.
Last week, the DPRK had deployed hundreds of balloons carrying bags of trash into South Korea, citing them as retaliation for anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons launched by South Korean activists.
Despite Pyongyang's announcement of a cessation of the balloon launches last Sunday, South Korean activist groups continued their activities.
The "Fighters for Free North Korea" group claimed to have sent balloons containing USB thumb drives loaded with K-pop music and 200,000 leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un, while another group of North Korean defectors dispatched balloons containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, radios, and USB thumb drives featuring a speech by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The DPRK had previously warned of further retaliation, promising to send "wastepaper and rubbish" in a quantity one hundred times greater if South Korean leaflets continued to be dispatched.
Read more: 600 more trash-carrying balloons sent from DPRK to South Korea
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 activists' balloon launches into the DPRK. The South Korean unification ministry stated that the issue is being deliberated in light of the 2023 court ruling.
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.
