North Korea sends hundreds more trash-filled balloons – then says it will stop

North Korea has sent some 15 tonnes of rubbish, including cigarette butts, paper waste and plastic, using 3,500 balloons

Pyongyang vowed to resume the practice if any more anti-North Korean leaflets are flown in the opposite direction by defectors and activists

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A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea, carrying various objects including what appeared to be trash, is pictured in Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday. Photo: Yonhap via Reuters

Published: 6:22pm, 2 Jun 2024Updated: 8:28am, 3 Jun 2024

North Korea said on Sunday it would stop sending balloons carrying rubbish over the border to South Korea but vowed to resume the practice if anti-North Korean leaflets are flown over again from the South.

South Korea has had enough experience of how unpleasant it is and how much effort it takes to collect rubbish after North Korea sent 15 tonnes of it using 3,500 balloons, the North’s vice-minister of defence Kim Kang-il said in a statement carried by state media outlet KCNA.

South Korea said it would take “unendurable” measures against North Korea for sending the balloons over the border, which could include blaring propaganda from loudspeakers directed at the North.

The announcement from President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office followed a meeting of his National Security Council on a response to what Seoul said were more than 700 balloons carrying rubbish that Pyongyang sent over the heavily fortified border to annoy its neighbour.

The council condemned the balloons, and simultaneous GPS jamming, as an “irrational act of provocation”.

A South Korean soldier wearing protective gear checks the rubbish from a balloon in Incheon on Sunday. Photo: Yonhap via AP

Seoul did not rule out resuming the loudspeaker blasts, which it stopped in 2018 after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a senior official at Yoon’s office told reporters.