South Korea grapples with the North’s ‘unruly behaviour’ as it raises a stink over garbage balloons from Pyongyang
- Pyongyang sent garbage balloons to South Korea this week, amid Seoul’s struggles with its neighbour’s aggressive response to perceived threats
- South Korea activists, led by North Korean defectors, have regularly sent balloons to the North, containing leaflets with messages critical of Pyongyang
More than 260 balloons have been found across South Korea since Wednesday, including in the Seoul metropolitan area, with balloon waste consisting of compost, cigarette butts, waste batteries, and waste cloth, the South Korean military said.
South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff condemned the balloons as a breach of the July 1953 Korean war armistice.
“We respectfully ask the South Korean government for understanding”, she said in a statement that seemed to be laced with sarcasm and irony.
Balloons have regularly been sent the other way by South Korean activists, often led by North Korean defectors, containing leaflets with messages critical of Pyongyang and stirring tension between the neighbours, including incidents when the North reportedly tried to shoot them down.
It fired at such balloons from the South in 2014, sparking a machine-gun fire exchange that raised safety concerns among people living near the heavily-armed border. No one was hurt in the exchange.