Trash War: North Korea Suspends Balloon Offensive Amid South Korean Protests

North Korea stopped sending trash-filled balloons to South Korea on Sunday, but warned it would restart if anti-North Korean leaflets were flown from the South. North Korea’s Vice-Minister of Defense, Kim Kang Il, told KCNA that South Korea had to clear up 15 tons of debris from 3,500 balloons.

South Korea warned “unendurable” actions, including resuming North-targeted loudspeaker broadcasts. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office released this remark after a National Security Council meeting on Pyongyang’s 700 balloons apparently sent to agitate the South. These and simultaneous GPS jamming were called “irrational acts of provocation.” by the council.

South Korean senior officials considered reviving loudspeaker broadcasts, which were banned in 2018 after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Since the Korean War concluded in an armistice, the two Koreas are still at war. North Korea develops missile and nuclear technologies, which Seoul and Washington say breaches U.N. resolutions, while South Korea, a close U.S. ally, conducts military maneuvers.

In response to South Korean defectors and activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets and other objects across the border, North Korea justified its garbage balloons. From Saturday evening until Sunday afternoon, the South Korean military found balloons carrying waste including cigarette butts and plastic around Seoul.

In various regions and sections of Seoul, emergency notifications warned citizens not to touch the balloons and to call the police. South Korean policemen collected and bagged the rubbish. N Korea has not commented on the latest balloon incident. South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reinforced their alliance by promising a coordinated response to North Korean provocations.