South Korea threatened on Tuesday to resume propaganda broadcasts against Pyongyang on the front line, the latest flashpoint in a Cold War-style standoff between the rivals after North Korea restarted launching balloons filled with rubbish, South Korean media reported.
North Korea launched huge balloons carrying plastic bags of rubbish across the border on Monday night in the fifth such campaign since late May, an apparent response to South Korean activists scattering political leaflets on balloons.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called North Korea’s balloon action a “disgusting and irrational provocation.”
In a speech marking the 74th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War, Yoon said on Tuesday that South Korea will maintain a firm military readiness to give an overwhelming response to any provocation by North Korea.
South Korea’s military said North Korea launched about 350 balloons in its latest campaign and about 100 of them eventually landed on South Korean soil, mostly in Seoul and nearby areas. Seoul is about 40-50 kilometres (25-30 miles) from the border. According to the military, the debris carried by the North Korean balloons consisted mostly of papers and no dangerous objects were found.
On the night of June 9, North Korea launched about 330 balloons carrying debris toward its neighbour. More than 80 of them reached the country, including 30 spotted in Seoul. South Korea decided to resume broadcasting through loudspeakers on the border for the first time since 2016: they used them to broadcast K-Pop music and world news to North Korean territory.
An “exchange” of balloons between the DPRK and South Korea had previously led to a decision to suspend the 2018 tension-reduction pact “until mutual trust between the South and the North is restored.”
Earlier, DPRK soldiers “accidentally” entered South Korean territory.
