South Korea has accused the North Korean regime of sending balloons containing garbage and human waste into its territory.
Over 260 inflated balloons with plastic bags tied to them had been detected by Wednesday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Some of the inflatables landed on the ground, while others were still airborne. Those that had landed appeared to have trash strewn around them, as well as animal feces, the Yonhap news agency said.
South Korea’s military explosives ordnance unit and a chemical and biological warfare response team were deployed to inspect and collect the mysterious objects.
An alert was also issued warning residents to keep away from the balloons and to report any sightings to the authorities.
North Korea may be trying to provoke the South, but an official with the presidential office in Seoul vowed to respond calmly.
“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,” the official told reporters.
Balloons have regularly been flown the other way by South Korean activists, including those who defected from the North.
Pyongyang has reacted angrily to those balloons, which contain materials like anti-regime leaflets, mini radios, food, and USB sticks of K-pop music videos and television shows.
On Sunday, North Korea’s vice defense minister denounced the South Korean balloons as “dirty things” and threatened to send “mounds of dirty waste paper and filth” into the South in retaliation.
North Korea also tried to jam the GPS signals in South Korea early Wednesday, though no damage was reported.
Peter Ward, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said that sending the balloons is a less dangerous means of provocation than direct military action.
“These kinds of gray zone tactics are more difficult to counter and hold less risk of uncontrollable military escalation, even if they’re horrid for the civilians who are ultimately targeted,” he explained.
With Post wires
