North Korea accused of sending balloons carrying excrement to South | South Korea

South Korea has warned residents living near the border with North Korea to be on alert, after accusing the regime of sending balloons containing what appeared to be trash and feces into its territory. neighbor.

Photographs released Wednesday by the South Korean military showed inflated balloons with plastic bags attached. Other images appeared to show trash strewn around collapsed balloons, with the word “excrement” written on a bag in one photograph.

As of Wednesday, more than 150 balloons had been detected, according to Yonhap news agency. Some had landed on the ground, while others were still in the air, he added, citing a South Korean military source.

Some of the balloons traveled long distances, reaching the southeastern province of South Gyeongsang, the statement said.

The fallen balloons appeared to be carrying various trash, including plastic bottles, batteries, shoe parts and what is believed to be manure, a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official said.

The military said unidentified objects likely from North Korea had been spotted near the demilitarized zone – the heavily fortified border separating the two Koreas. He urged people not to approach them and to report any sightings to the military or police.

The military’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit and Chemical and Biological Warfare Response Team were deployed to inspect and collect the items.

“These actions by North Korea clearly violate international law and seriously threaten the security of our people,” the JCS said, according to Yonhap. “(We) sternly warn North Korea to immediately stop these inhumane and vulgar acts.”

The balloons arrived after Kim Kang-il, North Korea’s vice defense minister, warned that the regime would retaliate in response to anti-North Korean leaflets crossing the border in the opposite direction.

“Retaliatory measures will also be taken against (South Korea’s) frequent scattering of leaflets and other trash near border areas,” Kim said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency on Sunday.

“Mounds of waste paper and trash will soon be scattered across the border areas and inside the Republic of Korea and we will experience first-hand the efforts needed to eliminate them,” Kim added, referring to the South’s official name , the Republic of Korea.

For years, South Korean activists and North Korean defectors have sent balloons to North Korea carrying leaflets criticizing the regime and calling on North Koreans to rise up against the Kim dynasty that has ruled the country for decades. They also sent USB drives containing K-pop music videos, which are banned in the North.

In 2020, the South Korean government, led by liberal President Moon Jae-in, angered human rights activists after taking action against two defector organizations that regularly released propaganda balloons, the accusing it of unnecessarily provoking the North, thereby hampering efforts. to improve cross-border links.

The government revoked the groups’ permits after they repeatedly ignored official requests to stop the flights, which activists credit with raising awareness among some North Koreans of the true horrors of the Pyongyang regime.

The Moon administration criminalized leafleting campaigns in a law introduced in early 2021, six months after Pyongyang expressed anger over the leaflets by bombing an inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

In 2023, South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned the controversial leaflet distribution law, calling it an excessive restriction on freedom of expression.

Two years ago, during the Covid-19 pandemic, activists in the South clashed with police as they released helium-filled balloons across the border. The balloons contained masks, over-the-counter painkillers and vitamin C tablets, as well as booklets celebrating life in the wealthy, democratic South. The packages also included hundreds of USB drives containing videos of members of the US Congress denouncing North Korea’s human rights record.

For the paranoid regime in Pyongyang, the balloons represent a potential existential threat because they challenge the carefully crafted narrative around the Kim dynasty. The regime regularly refers to their contents as “dirty trash” and claims, without proof, that they were responsible for the spread of the coronavirus.

Peter Ward, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, said sending up balloons was much less risky than launching open military action.

“These types of gray zone tactics are harder to counter and present less risk of uncontrollable military escalation, even if they are horrible for the civilians who are ultimately targeted,” he said.

The use of propaganda balloons has long been a source of tension between North and South Korea, who have technically been at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice agreement but not by a peace treaty.

With the Reuters news agency