South Korea’s military has detected over 90 balloons presumed to have been sent by North Korea across the inter-Korean border, a source said Wednesday, after the North warned of “tit-for-tat action” against anti-Pyongyang leaflets flown by the South’s activists.
Late Tuesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it spotted unidentified objects assumed to be propaganda leaflets in border areas of Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces.
As of Wednesday morning, some 90 balloons had been detected, with some of them falling to the ground, while the rest were still traveling, according to the military source.
The balloons that have fallen so far did not carry leaflets but contained trash and other waste, the source said, with the military and police currently collecting the fallen balloons.
On Sunday, North Korea said it will scatter “mounds of wastepaper and filth” over the border areas in a “tit-for-tat action” against the distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
The JCS has advised residents in the areas to not t
ouch the objects and report to nearby military or police authorities if they discover them.
For years, North Korean defectors in South Korea and conservative activists have flown the leaflets to the North via balloons to help encourage North Koreans to eventually rise up against the Pyongyang regime.
North Korea has bristled at the propaganda campaign amid concern that an influx of outside information could pose a threat to its leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea has repeatedly called for an end to the leafleting campaign. The issue has long been a source of tension between the two Koreas, which are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
Source: Yonhap News Agency