SEOUL: North Korea has started launching trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea again, presumably in reaction to the latter country’s decision to resume its propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts.
The North claims that the nearly 2,000 trash-carrying balloons it has sent southward since May are retaliation for propaganda balloons that South Korean activists have launched. The two Koreas have been involved in a tit-for-tat balloon campaign.
In a statement released on Sunday, July 21, the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that the North was launching yet another batch of garbage-carrying balloons, pointing out that they were heading towards Gyeonggi’s northern region. Please report them to the military or police and refrain from contacting the objects directly.
Three days after Seoul declared it had resumed broadcasting propaganda videos on loudspeakers aimed at North Korea, the most recent batch of balloons was released.
Seoul described the North’s garbage-carrying balloons as “low-class actions”. It stated that “all responsibility lies squarely with the North Korean military,” threatening to expand the scope of such broadcasts if the North continues.
If the North keeps up its provocations, we can raise the number of broadcast speakers in the frontline areas’, a military official told Yonhap news agency on Saturday. More than 100 flights carrying 10,000 passengers have been hampered by the North’s balloons, a South Korean lawmaker claimed earlier this month.
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