Seoul
Seoul's military said Tuesday that North Korea had launched hundreds more garbage balloons south, the latest in a series of border attacks that have sparked a retaliatory propaganda campaign.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang launched about 350 balloons on Monday evening, adding that about 100 of them landed in South Korea, mainly in the northern Gyeonggi province and the capital Seoul.
The bags attached to the balloons contained “mainly waste paper”, the military said, adding that analysis showed there was no safety risk to the public.
“The South Korean military is prepared to immediately conduct psychological warfare,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that the response “depends entirely on North Korea's actions.”
South Korean President Yun Seok-youl, in a speech marking the anniversary of the start of the Korean War, called North Korea's recent dropping of garbage-laden balloons a “despicable and irrational act of provocation.”
He slammed the agreement between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin during an official visit to North Korea last week, as a “blatant violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
“Our military will maintain a firm posture to ensure that North Korea cannot challenge South Korea under any circumstances and will respond overwhelmingly and resolutely to any provocations from North Korea,” Yoon added.
North Korea has already sent more than 1,000 balloons full of garbage to the south in retaliation for activists sending balloons carrying anti-regime propaganda to the north.
In response, the South Korean government suspended all military agreements aimed at easing tensions and resumed some propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a government spokeswoman, warned earlier this month that Seoul would “undoubtedly witness a new counterattack from North Korea” if the leaflet distribution and loudspeaker broadcasts continued.
Experts said tensions on the border could escalate quickly.
“Since South Korea has met the first condition of dropping leaflets, we are likely to see the mentioned 'new countermeasures' if the government resumes loudspeaker appeals,” said Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha Women's University.
