North Korea plans to stop sending garbage balloons to South Korea. After nearly 1,000 balloons were sent in response to South Korean activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.
Foreign news agencies reported that since Tuesday, May 28, 2024, North Korea has sent nearly 1,000 balloons carrying waste ranging from cigarette butts to cardboard and plastic. Crossing the border into South Korea even the North Korean military had to issue a warning to people not to approach.
South Korea also denounced the latest provocation by North Korea, describing it as “irrational” and “lousy.” It does not violate the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on the Pyongyang government.
The Seoul city government also warned on Sunday (June 2) that it will take strong retaliatory measures. If North Korea does not stop sending garbage balloons, which South Korea claims is a violation of the armistice agreement that ended the inter-Korean war in 1953.
Later Sunday night North Korea announced that they would stop sending garbage balloons to South Korea. They claim they used thousands of devices to send 15 tons of scrap paper across the border.
We made South Korea fully understand that. How disgusting and exhausting is this? “Collecting scraps of paper scattered everywhere,” a Pyongyang government statement said. Referring to the incident in which South Korean activists sent leaflets against the Pyongyang government across the border, he stressed that this was just a countermeasure.
North Korea added that for now, they will temporarily suspend sending garbage balloons. But if South Korea continues to send anti-government leaflets, they will respond by sending hundreds of times more waste paper and waste. Both in terms of frequency and quantity