“We will temporarily suspend the action of spreading waste paper across the border: this is because ours is a countermeasure”, reports the state agency Kcna. North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il said Pyongyang sent a total of 3,500 balloons, carrying 15 tons of garbage and manure to South Korea between Tuesday night and Sunday morning
Your browser does not support HTML5
North Korea today sent around 600 balloons carrying waste across the border with South Korea. After 260 balloons containing waste such as used batteries, manure and cigarette butts were sent earlier this week, Seoul announced that would have taken “countermeasures”. According to state news agency KCNA, Pyongyang will stop sending balloons full of rubbish and manure to South Korea if Seoul stops its activists from cross-border anti-Pyongyang leafleting. “We will temporarily suspend the action of spreading waste paper across the border: this is because ours is a countermeasure”, reports the KCNA.
Seoul: “Irrational provocations”
“North Korea has resumed launching balloons full of waste towards South Korea,” the Seoul General Staff said in a statement. The balloons are landing in South Korea’s northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi area, which together are home to nearly half of the
population of the South. Earlier this week North Korea began sending hundreds of balloons carrying bags of garbage, which Seoul called “low class”, warning that it would take strong countermeasures if Pyongyang does not stop these “irrational” provocations “.
in-depth analysis
North Korea launches new series of short-range missiles
Temporary stop to sending balloons to the South
In a statement relaunched by KCNA, North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il said Pyongyang sent a total of 3,500 balloons, carrying 15 tons of garbage and manure to South Korea between Tuesday night and Sunday morning. Kim offered to temporarily halt such activity because it was solely in response to “anti-communist leaflets flown toward the North by South Korean activists.” If South Korea “sends such leaflets again,” then the North will be forced to respond “with balloons that will carry “garbage equal to 100 times” the amount of those counter-propaganda “pieces of paper.”
