North Korea sends another wave of trash balloons into the South

North Korea has yet again sent hundreds of trash-laden balloons towards its southern neighbor, reigniting a tit-for-tat exchange after South Korean activists sent floating packages in the other direction carrying K-pop and K-dramas on USB sticks, News.Az reports citing CNN.

About 330 balloons carrying bags of trash had been sent by North Korea since Saturday night, of which about 80 have landed in South Korea, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Sunday.

Waste paper and plastic were found in the packages and there were no substances hazardous to safety, the JCS said.

Around 1,060 balloons from the North have made it into South Korean territory since May 28, according to a CNN tally.

South Korea’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss responses to the latest wave of balloons.

Last week, Pyongyang claimed to have sent a total of 3,500 balloons carrying 15 tonnes of trash to its neighbor, according to state media KCNA, citing North Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il.

Seoul will resume broadcasting propaganda messages through loudspeakers over the heavily armed border, the presidential office said in a statement on Sunday.

South Korea’s military once championed the broadcasts as part of psychological warfare against the North, until it withdrew the equipment following a 2018 summit between the neighbors.

The countries have been cut off from each other since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953. They are still technically at war, and the balloon feud has been going on for decades.

Groups such as Fighters for a Free North Korea have long sent balloons carrying items prohibited in the isolated totalitarian dictatorship – including food, medicine, radios, propaganda leaflets and pieces of South Korean news.

News.Az