(Seoul) North Korea again sent balloons filled with garbage toward South Korea on Saturday, the South Korean military said.
“North Korea is once again launching (alleged) waste-carrying balloons toward the South,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, advising the public not to touch them and report to authorities the aerostats spotted.
The South Korean army had announced a few hours earlier that it was on alert for the possible arrival of such balloons, which it then planned for Sunday.
The administration of the capital Seoul as well as that of Gyeonggi province, for their part, warned the population on the same day against such an eventuality.
In two waves last week, North Korea sent hundreds of aerostats weighted with bags full of various rubbish to its southern neighbor, “sincere gifts” which were aimed, according to it, at retaliating against shipments to its territory with balloons loaded with propaganda by South Korean activists.
On Sunday June 2, Pyongyang announced it would stop these actions.
But a few days later, an organization of South Korean activists, “Fighters for a Free North Korea,” said it had sent ten balloons to the north of the peninsula carrying 200,000 leaflets against North Korean number one Kim Jong. -one and USB sticks containing South Korean K-pop music.
Another group, made up of North Korean defectors, said it also sent ten balloons with 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets on Friday, as well as 100 radios and USB sticks containing a speech by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Jang Se-yul, the leader of these defectors, assured AFP on Saturday that his organization would not stop its campaign, “whether Kim Jong-un sends waste-carrying balloons again or not.”
However, North Korea has warned that it will respond with “waste paper and trash” in quantities 100 times greater if South Korean leaflets are sent.