South Korea started playing loudspeaker broadcasts towards North Korea on Saturday after trash balloons from North Korea entered South Korea. The trash balloons were sent around a week after North Korea already made an agreement with South Korea to stop sending the balloons.
The Vice-Minister of National Defense of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea’s formal name, stated in a press release that North Korea sent 3,500 balloons full of “wastepaper” from May 28 to June 2 in retaliation for anti-North Korea leaflets being sent into North Korea from South Korea. He said at the time that the balloons would stop being sent temporarily, but it will continue to send the trash balloons “hundred times the amount of scatter leaflets” if the leaflets continue to be sent from South Korea. A KoreaTimes news article stated that the leaflets were sent by a North Korean defectors’ groups in South Korea.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated in a press release that the South Korean military has been recently training for the first time since 2018 to prepare for situations when broadcasts towards North Korea are implemented. It said the purpose of the exercise is to expose North Koreans to the realities of North Korean and South Korean society.
South Korea has denied responsibility for the initial leaflet balloons and condemned North Korea, calling the North’s actions “inhumane” and “low-grade.” North Korea responded by saying that if the “wastepaper” balloons are an “obvious violation of international law,” as reported by South Korea, then the propaganda balloons must also be.
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