- South Korea is monitoring possible new launches of garbage-carrying balloons by North Korea amid rising tensions between the neighboring countries.
- Last week, North Korea sent about 1,000 balloons carrying fertilizer and garbage across the border into South Korea, while South Korean activists sent their own balloons carrying political leaflets into North Korea.
- North Korea’s deputy defense minister said his country would stop the balloon campaign, but threatened to resume it if South Korean activists again sent leaflets.
South Koreans on Friday went on alert for possible North Korean launches of balloons carrying garbage into South Korea, a day after activists in Seoul launched their own balloons to scatter political leaflets into North Korea.
any type of restoration Garbage balloon released by North Korea That would likely prompt South Korea to respond with anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts or live-fire exercises along its heavily fortified border. North Korea would likely retaliate with measures of its own, further raising tensions between the rivals.
Here’s a look at the growing hostility between the Koreas over the balloon launch:
Why are Koreans fighting over balloons?
Last week, South Korean authorities found about 1,000 balloons launched by North Korea in various parts of South Korea, containing manure, cigarette butts, pieces of cloth, spent batteries and vinyl. No particularly dangerous materials were found, but some South Koreans worry that North Korea could launch balloons containing biological or other dangerous materials in the future.
South Korean officials described North Korea’s balloon campaign and other recent provocations as “absurd, irrational” and vowed “unbearable” retaliation. Suspended the 2018 military agreement Reducing border military tensions with North Korea was discussed.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the balloons were a response to a campaign by South Korean citizens to fly propaganda leaflets into North Korea. Analysts say North Korea’s actions may also have been aimed at fuelling divisions in South Korea over its conservative government’s tough policy toward North Korea.
A South Korean soldier wearing protective equipment inspects debris from a balloon possibly sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)
For years, South Korean civic activists have used helium-filled balloons to drop anti-North Korea leaflets and USB sticks with South Korean dramas and world news into the country, which restricts access to foreign news for most of its 26 million people. These launches enraged North Korea, which first shot at the balloons and destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in North Korea in response.
Is there a possibility of tensions rising over the balloons?
North Korea’s Deputy Defense Minister Kim Kang Il said on Sunday that his country would halt the balloon campaign, but threatened to resume it if South Korean activists again sent leaflets.
Defying the warning, a South Korean civic group led by North Korean deserter Park Sang-hak said it released 10 balloons from a border town on Thursday containing 200,000 anti-North Korea pamphlets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean dramas, and one-dollar US bills.
“We sent truth and love, medicines, one-dollar bills and songs. But the barbarian Kim Jong Un sent us filth and garbage and he hasn’t said a single word of apology for that,” Park said.
North Korea did not immediately comment. Many experts expect it will resume flying balloons carrying garbage when weather conditions are favorable. North Korean state media previously described the park as “the world’s unrivaled human waste.”
Following the suspension of the 2018 tension-resolution deal, South Korea is prepared to retaliate against North Korea’s new balloon campaign by resuming frontline live-fire exercises or loudspeaker broadcasts of anti-North Korea messages and outside news. Such moves could further provoke North Korea.
Is Cold War-style psychological warfare coming back?
During the Korean War of 1950–53 and the height of the Cold War, one of the most common psychological operations was the dropping of balloons with propaganda leaflets into each other’s territory by both Koreas.
But the recent North Korean balloons sent to South Korea contained only trash, not political leaflets. This was North Korea’s first balloon campaign in seven years.
In a Memorial Day speech on Thursday, South Korean President Yun Suk-yeol said “North Korea has carried out a despicable provocation that would make any normal country ashamed of itself.” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller earlier called the garbage balloons “disgusting” and “childish.”
Frontline loudspeaker broadcasts were also used by the rival Koreas for psychological warfare during the Cold War, as well as giant frontline billboards and propaganda radio broadcasts.
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In recent years, the two Koreas have agreed to halt such activities, but have occasionally resumed them when tensions rise. South Korean officials say they have no legal basis to ban private citizens from flying balloons to North KoreaLast year, the country’s Constitutional Court struck down a law criminalising the distribution of such pamphlets, calling it a violation of freedom of expression.
Many in South Korea believe that resuming loudspeaker broadcasts would deal a serious blow to North Korea’s leadership, as they fear the broadcasts would demoralize front-line soldiers and residents of the tightly controlled society and ultimately undermine Kim Jong Un’s leadership.
In 2015, when South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts after an 11-year hiatus, North Korea fired artillery shells across the border, prompting South Korea to retaliate. There were no reports of casualties in the incident.
