North Korea violated South Korea’s sovereignty Tuesday and Wednesday when it flew more than 150 balloons allegedly carrying trash and feces into its rival’s airspace, Time Magazine reported.
The South Korean military warned the public Tuesday night to refrain from touching the balloons and to report it to the nearest military base, Hankyoreh reported. (RELATED: ‘Indescribably Cruel’: South Korean Court Sentences Man Who Killed 76 Cats To 14 Months In Prison)
The military and police are testing the materials in the fallen balloons for analysis, Chosun Ilbo reported.
“These acts by North Korea clearly violate international law and seriously threaten our people’s safety,” the South Korean said, according to Yonhap. The military added that they “sternly warn North Korea to immediately stop its inhumane and vulgar act.” North Korea previously warned its neighbor Sunday that they would send “mounds of wastepaper and filth” across the border in a “tit-for-tat action” against the anti-regime leaflets being sent by South Korean activists, Yonhap reported.
North Korean defectors and South Korean conservative activists have sent balloons into the communist state for years, loading them with leaflets critical of the North Korean regime and containing snippets of the outside world, the outlet reported. North Korea has called for these activities to cease as they are concerned that the leaflets could incite the public to rebel against their rule, the outlet noted.
North Korea sent a similar barrage of balloons carrying garbage to South Korea back in 2016, Time Magazine reported. The incident caused a scare in South Korea as people thought the balloons carried hazardous biochemical substances that turned out to be cigarette butts and used toilet paper, according to the outlet.
North Korea reportedly sends balloons of trash and poop to South Korea, as tensions brew https://t.co/cNrCzjkoVY
— TIME (@TIME) May 29, 2024
“These kinds of grey zone tactics [sending balloons] are more difficult to counter and hold less risk of uncontrollable military escalation, even if they’re horrid for the civilians who are ultimately targeted,” Peter Ward, a research fellow at Sejong Institute, told Reuters.
