South Korea vows ‘unendurable’ response to North’s trash balloons
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South Korean military officers checking unidentified objects believed to be rubbish from balloons that crossed the inter-Korea border, on a street in Seoul.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEOUL – South Korea said on June 2 it would take "unendurable" measures against North Korea for sending trash balloons over the border, which could include blaring propaganda from loudspeakers back at the North.
The announcement from President Yoon Suk-yeol's office followed a meeting by his National Security Council on a response to what Seoul said were more than 700 balloons carrying trash that Pyongyang sent over the heavily fortified border to rile its neighbour.
The council condemned the balloons and GPS jamming as an "irrational act of provocation".
Seoul did not rule out resuming the loudspeaker blasts, which it stopped in 2018 after a rare summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a senior official at Mr Yoon's office told reporters.
The balloons from the North carrying garbage such as cigarette butts, cloth, paper waste and plastic were found across the capital from 8pm on June 1 to 10am on June 2, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on June 2.
The military was monitoring the starting point and conducting aerial reconnaissance to track down and collect the balloons, which have large bags of rubbish suspended beneath them.
South Korean officers with rifles were picking up and bagging what appeared to be trash from the balloons in cordoned-off areas, local media footage showed.
On May 29, North Korea sent hundreds of balloons carrying rubbish and excrement
North Korea has not commented on the weekend balloons.
South Korea’s Defence Minister Shin Won-sik said during a meeting with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore on June 2 that the balloons violated the armistice agreement, according to South Korea’s military. The two reaffirmed a coordinated response to any North Korean threats and provocations based on the South Korea-US alliance’s combined defence posture.
Emergency alerts were issued in North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces and some parts of Seoul on June 2, urging people not to come into contact with the balloons and to alert the police. REUTERS
