SEOUL: South Korea‘s navy stated it was on alert for extra trash-carrying balloons probably arriving from North Korea on Sunday.
In two waves final week, North Korea despatched lots of of balloons with baggage of trash into the South, describing them as a response to anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons despatched the opposite manner by South Korean activists.
Pyongyang introduced a halt to the balloons on Sunday however days later, a South Korean group referred to as “Fighters for Free North Korea” stated it had despatched 10 balloons with Okay-pop music and 200,000 leaflets towards chief Kim Jong Un.
The South Korean navy is “intently monitoring with vigilance” due to “the potential of extra trash balloons descending round tomorrow”, its spokesperson informed AFP on Saturday.
North Korea had stated it will reply with “wastepaper and garbage” 100 occasions the quantity if extra South Korean leaflets had been despatched.
The North Korean balloons final week landed in quite a few areas within the South, and had been discovered to be carrying rubbish similar to cigarette butts, cardboard scrap and waste batteries.
In response to the balloons, South Korea on Tuesday utterly suspended a 2018 navy take care of the North, which was meant to cut back tensions between the neighbours.
Authorities in Seoul have condemned the North Korean balloons as a “low-class” act and threatened countermeasures that it stated Pyongyang would discover “unendurable”.
Duelling propaganda
Activists in South Korea have lengthy despatched balloons northwards, crammed with anti-Pyongyang propaganda, money, rice, and Korean TV collection on USB thumb drives.
These have all the time infuriated North Korea, whose authorities is extraordinarily delicate about its individuals having access to South Korean popular culture.
Kuensaem, one other South Korean activist group, informed AFP that it threw 500 plastic bottles into the ocean on Friday close to the border with North Korea.
The bottles had been crammed with rice, money and a USB drive with the South Korean collection “Crash Touchdown on You” — which encompasses a romance between a rich South Korean heiress and a North Korean military officer.
The group has been doing this twice a month since 2015.
“We had been simply doing what we have been doing for a very long time to assist North Koreans who’re ravenous,” the group’s chief Park Jung-oh informed AFP Saturday.
Tensions over the duelling propaganda have boiled over in dramatic trend previously.
In 2020, blaming the anti-North leaflets, Pyongyang unilaterally minimize off all official navy and political communication hyperlinks with Seoul and blew up a disused inter-Korean liaison workplace on its facet of the border.
Final 12 months, South Korea’s Constitutional Courtroom struck down a 2020 legislation that criminalised the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, calling it an undue limitation on free speech.
Kim Jong Un’s highly effective sister Kim Yo Jong mocked South Korea for complaining concerning the balloons final week, saying North Koreans had been merely exercising their freedom of expression.
In two waves final week, North Korea despatched lots of of balloons with baggage of trash into the South, describing them as a response to anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons despatched the opposite manner by South Korean activists.
Pyongyang introduced a halt to the balloons on Sunday however days later, a South Korean group referred to as “Fighters for Free North Korea” stated it had despatched 10 balloons with Okay-pop music and 200,000 leaflets towards chief Kim Jong Un.
The South Korean navy is “intently monitoring with vigilance” due to “the potential of extra trash balloons descending round tomorrow”, its spokesperson informed AFP on Saturday.
North Korea had stated it will reply with “wastepaper and garbage” 100 occasions the quantity if extra South Korean leaflets had been despatched.
The North Korean balloons final week landed in quite a few areas within the South, and had been discovered to be carrying rubbish similar to cigarette butts, cardboard scrap and waste batteries.
In response to the balloons, South Korea on Tuesday utterly suspended a 2018 navy take care of the North, which was meant to cut back tensions between the neighbours.
Authorities in Seoul have condemned the North Korean balloons as a “low-class” act and threatened countermeasures that it stated Pyongyang would discover “unendurable”.
Duelling propaganda
Activists in South Korea have lengthy despatched balloons northwards, crammed with anti-Pyongyang propaganda, money, rice, and Korean TV collection on USB thumb drives.
These have all the time infuriated North Korea, whose authorities is extraordinarily delicate about its individuals having access to South Korean popular culture.
Kuensaem, one other South Korean activist group, informed AFP that it threw 500 plastic bottles into the ocean on Friday close to the border with North Korea.
The bottles had been crammed with rice, money and a USB drive with the South Korean collection “Crash Touchdown on You” — which encompasses a romance between a rich South Korean heiress and a North Korean military officer.
The group has been doing this twice a month since 2015.
“We had been simply doing what we have been doing for a very long time to assist North Koreans who’re ravenous,” the group’s chief Park Jung-oh informed AFP Saturday.
Tensions over the duelling propaganda have boiled over in dramatic trend previously.
In 2020, blaming the anti-North leaflets, Pyongyang unilaterally minimize off all official navy and political communication hyperlinks with Seoul and blew up a disused inter-Korean liaison workplace on its facet of the border.
Final 12 months, South Korea’s Constitutional Courtroom struck down a 2020 legislation that criminalised the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, calling it an undue limitation on free speech.
Kim Jong Un’s highly effective sister Kim Yo Jong mocked South Korea for complaining concerning the balloons final week, saying North Koreans had been merely exercising their freedom of expression.
