South Korea believes “trash balloons” sent by North Korea may be to blame for a fire that broke out near the inter-Korean border, raising concerns over the potential dangers of Pyongyang’s latest provocation.
According to North Korea-focused website NK News, citing local officials, a forest fire erupted on Monday morning in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
The local fire department was able to contain the blaze within 20 minutes, and no casualties were reported as a result.
“We believe the fire was caused by a [DPRK] balloon filled with trash, but we are still verifying the details,” the North Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters told NK News.
South Korean firefighters participate in an disaster exercise held by South Korean Metropolitan Government on May 16, 2016 in Seoul, South Korea. Firefighters from the North Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters put out a fire in Paju on on Monday, which South Korea has blamed on a North Korean trash balloon.
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
A similar incident was reported on July 25, when one of the balloons sent from across the border caught fire after landing on top of a residential building near Seoul.
During a subsequent briefing, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung-jun said that the fire was ignited by a timer that North Korea attaches to the balloons, “which cause the balloons to burst and scatter the trash after a certain period.”
However, the Lee said that intercepting the balloons before they land would be prohibitively dangerous, as falling debris could cause greater damage to buildings and individuals below.
South Korean soldiers wearing protective gears check the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, Sunday, June 2, 2024. North Korea has launched thousands of the trash-carrying balloons toward the South, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.
Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP
North Korea has flown thousands of trash-carrying balloons into the South since May, which hold bags containing old batteries, manure and even human excrement, South Korea has said.
In late June, balloons which landed around Incheon Airport delayed flights for around three hours, as military authorities attempted to clear up the debris.
A month later, waste carried by these balloons landed in the presidential compound of Yoon Suk Yeol, raising concerns about the vulnerability of the country’s officials to Pyongyang’s bombardment.
In response to the campaign, Seoul has resumed loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the inter-Korean border, in conjunction with the ongoing balloon-leafleting campaign.
According to the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the broadcasts contain pop music, criticism of the Kim Jong Un Regime, and news about South Korea’s economy.
Initially only taking place for a few hours each day, in mid-July South Korea opted to switch to round-the-clock broadcasts, in response to the “shameful and vulgar” launch of trash balloons, the military said in a statement, cited by Reuters.
A North Korean guard post on the North side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, is seen from the border city of Paju on June 21, 2024. Seoul’s military said on June 21 it had fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border in the third such incursion in June.
Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images
The exchange of balloons and broadcasts is only one source of tension at the inter-Korean border, where tensions have reached fever pitch due to ongoing military provocations by the North.
North Korean soldiers have routinely crossed the 150-mile demilitarized zone separating the countries, prompting warning shots from South Korean forces.
Last week, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a ceremony celebrating the transfer of 250 ballistic missile launchers to the border, according to state news agency KNCA, which officials in the South perceived as a signal that Pyongyang may be preparing for an armed confrontation.
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