North Korea sends 700 more garbage balloons to South Korea

CNN
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North Korea has stepped up its trash balloon operations, with Seoul officials reporting about 700 deliveries of airborne trash to South Korea, littering parts of the country with cigarette butts, paper and pieces of fabric.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said “no substances harmful to security were found” among the balloons that reached the country on Saturday evening – unlike just days ago, when used toilet paper had been found in some of the approximately 150 balloons that crossed South Korea. border.

The latest photos released by the JCS show a large bag containing what appears to be paper left at the side of the road, while other images show officers inspecting trash strewn on the ground. Others showed burnt cigarette butts.

According to images released by the authorities, the packages are transported by large balloons filled with gas.

South Korea said its military was working with police, local government, the security ministry and the United Nations Command to safely recover the balloons and debris. The balloons were found in the capital Seoul, as well as the provinces of Gyeonggi and Chungcheong. Some have even been spotted more than 300 kilometers south of the capital, in Gyeongsang province.

The two neighboring countries have been cut off from each other since the end of the Korean War in 1953 with an armistice. Technically, they are still at war.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong – a senior reclusive regime official – called the balloons “sincere gifts” and pledged to send more, according to a statement released by the agency on Wednesday Korean Central Press.

She compared North Korea’s actions to South Korea’s years-long practice of sending balloons with anti-North Korea leaflets in the other direction.

North Korea is almost completely closed to the rest of the world, with strict controls on information flowing in or out. Foreign materials, including films and books, are prohibited, with some state-sanctioned exceptions; those caught smuggling foreign goods are often severely punished, defectors say.

Earlier this year, a South Korean research group released rare footage it said showed North Korean teenagers sentenced to forced labor for watching and distributing K-dramas.

Restrictions have eased somewhat in recent decades as relations between North Korea and China have grown. Temporary opening measures have allowed some South Korean elements, including some of its pop culture, to infiltrate the hermit nation – particularly in 2017 and 2018, when relations thawed between the two countries .

But the situation in North Korea deteriorated in the following years and diplomatic negotiations failed, leading to the reinstatement of strict rules.