2024-09-06 05:47:33
North Korea has already sent over 3,800 garbage balloons across the border to South Korea. Now new balloons are on the way.
According to South Korean sources, North Korea has once again sent hundreds of balloons loaded with garbage across the border into its neighboring country. Late on Wednesday evening, Pyongyang sent around 420 balloons loaded with garbage southward, the South Korean General Staff said on Thursday. More balloons were spotted on Thursday morning.
About 20 balloons had already landed in the south this morning, particularly in the northwestern province of Gyeonggi and the capital Seoul, the General Staff said. The bags attached to the balloons contained “mainly paper and plastic waste”. There was no safety risk for the population.
Since May, North Korea has already flown more than 3,800 garbage balloons towards South Korea. Pyongyang says this is its response to propaganda balloons from South Korean activists.
The latest balloon delivery is the thirteenth in five months. It comes against the backdrop of increasingly deteriorating relations between the two countries. North Korea recently announced the stationing of 250 ballistic missile launchers on its southern border.
On Wednesday, South Korean government officials discussed the situation with their ally, the USA. North Korea has “not stopped developing its nuclear and missile capabilities,” South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun told journalists. Pyongyang has also “recently continued to provoke by disrupting the GPS system or launching garbage balloons.” It cannot be ruled out that Pyongyang will launch a “significant provocation” around the US presidential election in November.
In response to the garbage shipments, South Korea suspended a 2018 military agreement with North Korea aimed at reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula and avoiding unintentional escalation, particularly along the heavily fortified border.
The two Koreas are theoretically still at war today, as the conflict of 1950-1953 ended only with a ceasefire and not with a peace treaty.