Relations between North and South Korea have been tense for decades – but the situation has recently taken a rather strange turn.
South Korean authorities have warned people living near the border with North Korea to be on guard amid reports the regime was sending balloons over into its neighbour’s terrirory.
The balloons are thought to contain rubbish and faeces – and more than 150 balloons have been found so far.
Some have landed while others are still floating through the air, the Yonhap news agency says, with some travelling as far as the south eastern province of South Gyeongsang.
Pictures show inflated white balloons with plastic bags tied to them. After being knocked to the ground, rubbish appears to have spewed out.
It’s thought the balloons are carrying various items of waste including plastic bottles, batteries, broken shoes and what’s believed to be manure.
An official at the presidential office in Seoul said: ‘By putting rubbish and miscellaneous objects into balloons, they seem to want to test how our people would react and whether our government is indeed disrupted, and apart from direct provocations, how psychological warfare and small-scale complex threats would play out in our country.’
South Korea’s military has told residents not to go near the balloons and to report any sightings to them or to the police.
Ordnance, chemical and biological warfare experts were deployed to collect and inspect the balloons.
They were first spotted near the demilitarised zone – the border between the two Koreas.
A statement from the South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said: ‘These acts by North Korea clearly violate international law and seriously threaten our people’s safety.
‘We sternly warn North Korea to immediately stop these inhumane and vulgar acts.’
It’s thought the balloons had been sent in retaliation after anti-North Korean leaflets were dropped from planes last week – as they referred to the balloons as ‘gifts of sincerity’.
Kim Kang-il, a North Korean defence vice-minister, warned on Sunday: ‘Tit-for-tat action will be also taken against frequent scattering of leaflets and other rubbish [by South Korea] near border areas.
‘Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK [South Korea] and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them.’
Propaganda balloons have been a source of tension between North Korea and South Korea for years.
North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea regularly send inflatables containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, alongside food, medicine, money and USB sticks loaded with K-pop music videos and dramas across the border.
The countries are technically at war, since their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice agreement but no peace treaty.
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