By EFE
May 29, 2024, 01:37 AM EDT
The South Korean army reported that more than 90 balloons sent by North Korea to South Korea have been detected, which were filled with debris. This happens a few days after Pyongyang threatened to respond, after sending propaganda against the regime. .
The balloons began to be detected on Tuesday night, when the Army began to spot unidentified flying objects in the border areas of the South Korean provinces of Gyeonggi and Gangwon, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
“Many of the balloons have not fallen yet, but those that have contain trash and dirt,” according to a statement from the JCS, who also added that they believe they have found timers built into the balloons to make them pop.
The balloons have fallen in different regions
The balloons that have already fallen from the sky have done so in different locations in Gyeonggi and Gangwon, but also in the Guro district in Seoul or in the central province of South Chungcheong, areas that are further away from the inter-Korean border.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry displayed the trash balloons in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, in apparent retaliation against South Korean activists for sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.
They ask the population not to touch anything
The Army has advised residents of these areas not to touch the balloons or their contents, and to immediately inform military or police authorities when they see them, so that they can take action.
For years, human rights organizations – mainly led by North Korean defectors – in South Korea have sent anti-North Korean leaflets in balloons.
I would answer “eye for an eye action.”
Last Sunday, May 26, North Korean Vice Minister of National Defense, Kim Kang-il, published a statement obtained by the KCNA news agency in which he denounced recent balloon shipments by activists and assured that they would respond with “action.” eye for an eye”.
“Mounds of used paper and waste will soon be scattered across the border areas and interior of the Republic of Korea (official name of the South) and you will experience firsthand how much effort is required to clean them up,” the text added.
The two Koreas remain technically at war, since the conflict that confronted them between 1950 and 1953 was closed with a ceasefire and not a peace treaty.
Earlier this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared South Korea the main national enemy and removed the goal of reunification from the Constitution.
Since then, the regime, which has been refusing to resume dialogue on disarmament for years, has removed a multitude of symbolic elements in the country that called for the need to seek peaceful reunification, which indicates an important diplomatic turn that has also been accompanied by an intense rapprochement with Russia in the last year.
Keep reading:
- North Korea conducts nuclear counterattack drills
- Kim Jong-un supervised missile launch that coincided with Blinken’s visit to South Korea
- US and South Korea begin annual military exercises amid threats from North Korea