North Korea Sends around 330 Trash-Carrying Balloons to South
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – In the early hours of Sunday, North Korea sent around 330 balloons with trash towards the territory of South Korea, although some of them probably failed to reach their destination, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"As of 10 a.m. (local time, 1:00 a.m. GMT), the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it had detected some 330 waste-carrying balloons launched by the North since Saturday, with more than 80 of them landing inside South Korea and the rest apparently failing to reach the country," the agency reported, according to TASS.
According to the report, many balloons fell in the sea.
South Korea’s presidential National Security Council (NSC), chaired by NSC adviser Chang Ho-jin will hold a meeting later in the day to discuss a potential response.
According to KCNA, around 3,500 balloons carrying some 15 tons of trash such as cigarette butts, cloth, paper waste and plastic were sent by North Korea across the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas from May 28 to June 2. Pyongyang said it was a tit-for-tat response to what it called South Korea’s "scattering leaflets and various dirty things" over the border.
Earlier, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong characterized the launching of balloons carrying trash to South Korea as a manifestation of "the North Korean people's fair right to freedom of expression" and cautioned that Pyongyang will give a ten-fold response to any spread of ‘South Korean propaganda garbage’ on their territory.
The latest balloon campaign came after South Korea-based organizations of North Korean defectors launched balloons with propaganda leaflets to the North on June 6 and 7.
