North Korea has sent over 300 additional waste-loaded balloons into South Korea, escalating tensions between the two nations, Al Jazeera reported citing Seoul’s military on Monday. This action follows a warning from Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, who urged Seoul to stop propaganda broadcasts across their volatile border, cautioning that the loudspeaker broadcasts could provoke a “crisis of confrontation.” “This is a prelude to a very dangerous situation,” Kim said in a statement carried by state media on Sunday.
The latest balloons carried only scrap paper and plastic, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), unlike previous batches that contained unsanitary materials such as manure, toilet paper, and cigarette butts. Military officials reported no balloons were detected in the air as of 8:30 am (local time).
South Korea had resumed its loudspeaker broadcasts just hours earlier in response to North Korea’s recent deployment of more than 1,000 rubbish-filled balloons in recent weeks, Al Jazeera reported. These broadcasts typically include international news and K-pop, both of which are restricted by the Kim regime.
Seoul had stopped the broadcasts in 2018 during a period of inter-Korean rapprochement initiated by former President Moon Jae-in, predecessor to the conservative incumbent, Yoon Seok-yeol. Pyongyang stated it began the balloon campaign in retaliation for South Korean activists sending anti-North Korean leaflets and USB sticks filled with South Korean music and dramas across the border, as reported by Al Jazeera.
“Seoul does not want military tension at the inter-Korean border, and Pyongyang does not want outside information threatening the legitimacy of the Kim regime,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “For both sides, ‘escalating to deescalate’ is a risky proposition. North Korea may have already miscalculated, as South Korea’s democracy cannot simply turn off NGO balloon launches the way an autocracy would expect. Pyongyang is used to employing asymmetric tactics to its advantage, but in today’s information space, it is outgunned by messages of freedom, economic success, and K-pop,” he further stated.