SEOUL: North Korea has intensified its unconventional campaign against South Korea by releasing additional balloons likely laden with trash across the border, according to the South Korean military. This action follows a similar release last week and is part of a series of launches that began in late May.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have indicated the potential trajectory of these balloons toward Gyeonggi Province, which envelops Seoul, and the eastern region of Gangwon. Since the inception of this campaign, North Korea has sent more than 5,000 such balloons southward as a form of retaliation against anti-Pyongyang leaflets dispersed by activists and defectors from the North currently residing in the South.
A statement from a spokesperson for North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security on Friday criticized the South, referring to them as “ROK scum” and alleging that rubbish, purportedly sent by the Republic of Korea, had again been discovered. This rhetoric underscores the persi
stent tensions between the two nations.
South Korea’s military has pledged to implement “stern” measures should North Korea’s balloon campaign escalate beyond its current parameters or result in significant harm to South Korean citizens. In a strategic countermeasure, South Korea has resumed daily anti-North Korean broadcasts via loudspeakers along the demilitarized zone since July. However, they have abstained from actively intercepting the balloons, citing safety concerns for people in the balloons’ potential paths.