South Korea has warned its neighbor of significant consequences if any citizens are hurt as a result of the country’s ongoing trash-balloon campaign.
Over the weekend, North Korea launched a further batch of balloons carrying waste across the border, causing chaos in the south and provoking anger from Seoul officials. The response from South Korea signals that the heightening tensions between the two may soon spill over into a more significant confrontation.
“If serious danger is caused to the safety of our citizens or if the North is assessed to have crossed the line, our military will take stern military measures,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Monday, per Yonhap News.
It didn’t elaborate on what specific actions would be taken as a result of the “internationally disgraceful and petty act,” and Newsweek has contacted the South Korean ministry of defense for comment.
South Korean soldiers collect the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, on July 24, 2024. North Korea has sent over 5,000 balloons across the border since May, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Lim Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP
The JCS added that the ongoing launches may require the military to shoot down the balloons, but that the resulting dispersal of hazardous materials could pose a safety issue for those on the ground.
The JCS said that the military had detected some 120 balloons launched by Pyongyang between Sunday evening an Monday morning.
One of these was spotted floating near Incheon International Airport at around 5 a.m. on Monday, causing significant delays at the country’s busiest airport.
Takeoffs and landings were halted for nearly 90 minutes, and one airport official told Korea JoongAng Daily that further disruptions would be expected as debris from fallen balloons was collected.
Since May, the JCS claims North Korea has launched around 5,500 balloons into the South, carrying garbage, discarded batteries and even parasites thought to originate from human excrement.
A North Korean guard post on the North side of the Demilitarised Zone dividing the two Koreas, is seen over a South Korean military fence from the border city of Paju on June 21, 2024. North Korea claims its balloon-launching campaign is in retaliation to South Korean activists sending propaganda over the border.
Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images
While no casualties have yet been reported as a result of the barrage, the action has caused concern in the country.
In July, refuse carried by these balloons landed in the presidential compound of South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol, requiring the security service to deploy a biological response team to collect the contents.
In mid-August, Seoul officials said that timers attached to the balloons, set to explode the balloons after a certain period, had ignited a forest fire near the inter-Korean border.
In early September, Seoul City Councilor Park Soo Bin announced that a citizen had been injured by a falling “garbage balloon” while cycling, and questioned: “Why are the military authorities who guaranteed the safety of the citizens silent?”
Pyongyang claims that the balloons are in retaliation to South Korean activists sending leaflets critical of the Kim Jong Un regime across the border.
In response to the ongoing balloon launches, South Korea has resumed the practice of broadcasting anti-Kim propaganda into North Korea through loudspeakers stationed at the inter-Korean border.
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