North Korea sends balloons carrying ‘excrement’ to South Korea
Last Updated on May 29, 2024 5:55 pm
North Korea has accused South Korea of sending a large number of ‘waste and excrement-carrying balloons’ across the heavily guarded border. Along with this, the East Asian country has termed this kind of activity as ‘provocation’.
After the incident on Wednesday (May 29), South Korea deployed the military’s Explosives Ordnance Unit and Chemical and Biological Warfare Response Team and warned residents to stay away from the balloons and report anything to the authorities, the Guardian reported.
By Wednesday afternoon, more than 260 balloons had been detected and most of them had landed, Reuters reported, citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The balloons were filled with garbage such as plastic bottles, batteries, shoe parts and excrement wrapped in polythene.
Photos released by the South Korean military show the balloons tied to polythene bags. Other pictures show balloons falling on the ground and garbage wrapped in polythene bags scattered around, one of which was labeled ‘excrement’.
Some of the balloons contained “animal faeces” in polythene bags, Yonhap news agency reported.
According to Yonhap, such actions by North Korea clearly violate international law and seriously threaten public security. Therefore, North Korea is strongly warned to immediately stop this ‘inhumane and obscene’ act.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il also warned South Korea that the Kim administration would “retaliate” until anti-North Korean leaflet-carrying balloons from the South stop coming over the border.
The North takes ‘tit-for-tat’ measures against the frequent spreading of leaflets and other rubbish from South Korea in the border area, news agency KCNA reported, citing a statement by North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim also said mounds of waste paper and garbage will soon be scattered across the border area to make the South realize how much pain the North has to go through to remove their waste.
Notably, for years, South Korean activists and North Korean defectors have been sending balloons into North Korea containing leaflets criticizing the Kim administration and calling on North Koreans to rise up against the Kim dynasty. They are even sending K-pop music videos on USB memory sticks by balloon to the North, which is banned in Kim’s country.