Seoul decided to respond to balloons loaded with garbage and excrement from North Korea with loudspeakers at the border. The broadcast of anti-North Korean propaganda starts again from South Korea, with a series of loudspeakers placed near the border broadcasting messages against Kim Jong-Un’s regime. Tension has been rising between the two countries for days and they are now expecting a response from Seoul that risks further worsening the crisis. There will certainly be a response from North Korea. And military retaliation is not ruled out either.
Balloons with garbage from North Korea
Only yesterday 8 June, Seoul reported the sending of another 330 balloons full of rubbish from North Korea. Seoul’s chief of staff explained that so far around 80 balloons have fallen in their area. Analyzes were also carried out on the loads carried by the balloons, which excluded the presence of “dangerous substances”. What is certain for the South Koreans, starting with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-Hoon, is that Pyongyang “is engaging in another low-level provocation, launching garbage balloons at our civilian areas.”
The exchange of accusations
North Korea’s latest move was in turn a response to the launch of propaganda leaflets by South Korea. Over 220 thousand leaflets and other material, such as CDs with music by K-pop groups, which are banned in North Korea. A gesture implemented by some South Korean civic group activists. Certainly not hindered by the military leaders in Seoul, who have now decided to bombard the North Koreans with messages against Kim Jong-Un. “Although the measures we are taking may be difficult for the North Korean regime to bear, they will provide messages of light and hope to the North Korean military and citizens,” the Seoul Presidential Office said in its note. Let us make it clear from the outset that the responsibility for any escalation of tension between the two Koreas will fall entirely on the North.”
The risk of escalation
The emergency meeting, chaired by National Security Director Chang Ho-jin, came a week after the Council itself discussed responses to Pyongyang’s balloon campaigns and GPS jamming attacks in the Yellow Sea. After the meeting, Chang said the government would take “unbearable actions” against the North’s provocations. President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday approved the motion to fully suspend the 2018 comprehensive military pact to reduce inter-Korean tension, which was behind the resumption of propaganda broadcasts near the border. After the deal was halted, the South Korean military vowed to resume all military activities near the military demarcation line and the northwest border islands for the first time in more than five years.
