Inside Kim Jong-un’s grim campaign sending trash balloons to South Korea

Relations between North and South Korea have taken a dirtier turn.

For several years, South Korea has floated anything from CDs and DVDs to political propaganda and Covid-19 relief items across the border to North Korea using balloons to make it over the dividing line.

But in recent months North Korea has responded by sending back their own balloons – full of rubbish.

Dozens of dirty balloons have been sent across the border into South Korea since May of this year, with as many as 600 balloons sent in June, and the tit-for-tat exchanges have continued with no sign of slowing down.

After using pop music to try and deter them, South Korea has now vowed to take ‘stern military measures’ if public safety is threatened by the rubbish-filled balloons, South China Morning Post reports – but how exactly did this all start?

Why is North Korea sending trash balloons over South Korea?

Propaganda balloons have been a source of tension between North Korea and South Korea for years.

North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea regularly send inflatables containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, alongside food, medicine, money and USB sticks loaded with K-pop music videos and dramas across the border.

More balloons were sent floating south on September 5 (Picture: YONHAP/AFP)

This bag of rubbish transported by balloon into South Korea burst on the street (Picture: YONHAP/AFP)

The countries are technically at war, since their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice agreement but no peace treaty.

It’s thought these rubbish-filled balloons were sent in retaliation after anti-North Korean leaflets were dropped from planes – as they referred to the balloons as ‘gifts of sincerity’.

Kim Kang-il, a North Korean defence vice-minister, warned in May: ‘Tit-for-tat action will be also taken against frequent scattering of leaflets and other rubbish [by South Korea] near border areas.

‘Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK [South Korea] and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them.’

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, confirmed the North sent the balloons to make good on her country’s recent threat to ‘scatter mounds of wastepaper and filth’ in response to leafleting campaigns.

She hinted the balloons could become the standard response to leafletting moving forward, saying they would respond by ‘scattering rubbish dozens of times more than those being scattered to us’.

Where have the trash balloons been dropped?

South Korean soldiers wearing protective gear check the trash for anything dangerous (Credits: AP)

Once they’ve been launched, the trash balloons are at the mercy of the wind – or South Korean military shooting them down.

They mostly seem to affect people living close to the border, with authorities warning those residents to be on guard.

Some of the balloons were reported to have travelled as far south as South Gyeongsang, about 250 miles (400km) south of the border.

How many have been dropped?

The exact number of rubbish-filled balloons sent over to South Korea isn’t yet clear.

However it’s thought more than 150 were found during the first wave back in May, with another 600 or so sent in June.

In total it’s been estimated around 5,500 trash balloons have been sent from North Korea this year, Newsweek reports.

What disruptions have they caused?

The trash balloons have caused some serious disruption at Incheon International Airport, one of Asia’s busiest.

On Monday flights were grounded for over an hour after a balloon was spotted nearby – and just 10 minutes after flights were resumed, they had to be suspended again after debris was found within the airport compound.

One of the balloons which landed in a rice field near Incheon (Picture: YONHAP/AFP)

Some of the trash bags attached to the balloons are landing intact (Picture: EPA)

An airport official told JoongAng Daily: ‘Further disruptions in air traffic are expected as debris from trash-carrying balloons continues to be spotted.’

In June and July, North Korean balloons caused five runway disruptions at both Incheon and Gimpo airports. This affected 133 flights and around 18,000 passengers.

There’s also the general disruption to the lives of those who find the trash balloons – as authorities have told them not to go near them, and to report them as soon as they’re spotted.

Ordnance, chemical and biological warfare experts have also been deployed to collect and inspect the balloons.

What has South Korea’s reaction been?

Unsurprisingly, South Korea are not pleased about this latest development in their tit-for-tat.

Others are spilling trash over the ground (Picture: Reuters)

An official at the presidential office in Seoul said earlier this year: ‘By putting rubbish and miscellaneous objects into balloons, they seem to want to test how our people would react and whether our government is indeed disrupted, and apart from direct provocations, how psychological warfare and small-scale complex threats would play out in our country.’

While a statement from the South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said: ‘These acts by North Korea clearly violate international law and seriously threaten our people’s safety.

‘We sternly warn North Korea to immediately stop these inhumane and vulgar acts.’

And South Korea’s defence minister Shin Won-sik called it ‘unimaginably petty and low-grade behaviour’.

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