South Korean activists said they launched a new batch of balloons carrying propaganda leaflets toward North Korea on Thursday after Pyongyang sent balloons filled with rubbish across the border, escalating tensions in bilateral relations, South Korean media reported.
A South Korean civic group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak said it launched 10 large balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean dramas, and one-dollar US notes from a border town on Thursday.
The purpose of this launch is to tell North Koreans that life is better in South Korea and to anger Pyongyang, which is extremely wary of outside attempts to undermine North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s power.
Over the past few days, North Korea has sent nearly 1,000 balloons with bags of rubbish attached to them into South Korea. According to the North Korean agency, 15 tonnes of rubbish were sent to the neighbouring territory. The DPRK explained that these actions were a response to the distribution of propaganda leaflets by Seoul. In addition, Pyongyang is using balloons to jam GPS signals in the border area.
In response, South Korea’s National Security Council decided to suspend the inter-Korean tension-reduction pact, which the two sides concluded in 2018, until mutual trust with the neighbouring country is restored.
The authorities specified that this will allow military exercises to be conducted near the demarcation line and to “respond more adequately and immediately to North Korean provocations.”
Retaliation balloons
The balloons dropping rubbish in South Korea were launched in retaliation for a similar propaganda campaign by defectors and activists in the South.
After sending more than 1,000 balloons in the following days, North Korea said it was halting the rubbish balloon flights but threatened to resume more if South Korean activists sent leaflets again. Mr. Park also said in a statement:
We sent the truth and love, medicines, one-dollar bills and songs. But a barbaric Kim Jong Un sent us filth and garbage and he hasn’t made a word of apology over that. Our group, the Fighters for Free North Korea, will keep sending our leaflets, which are the letters of truth and freedom for our beloved North Korean compatriots.
Washington flew a B-1B bomber over the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday in a show of force against North Korea to conduct the first precision-guided bombing exercise with South Korea in seven years. North Korea has previously responded to similar overflights by advanced US aircraft with provocative missile tests.
The neighbours have been sending balloons and propaganda leaflets across the border since the Korean War in the 1950s.
