SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says it will resume loudspeaker broadcasts of anti-North Korean propaganda in the border area in response to North Korea’s continuing campaign of dropping garbage into the South via balloons.
After an emergency security meeting led by South Korea’s National Security Advisor Jang Ho-jin, authorities decided to set up loudspeakers in the border area and begin broadcasting on Sunday, the presidential office in Seoul said in a statement.The move has infuriated North Korea, which could certainly launch retaliatory military action.
Chang and other South Korean security officials accused North Korea of trying to cause “unrest and chaos” in South Korea and stressed that “North Korea bears full responsibility” for any further escalation of tensions between the two Koreas.
North Korea launched hundreds of planes over the weekend Balloons carrying trash South Korea’s military announced the operation, its third into South Korea since late May, just days after South Korean activists launched their own balloons to drop propaganda leaflets in North Korea.
North Korea has previously launched more than 1,000 balloons and dropped tons of garbage and fertilizer on South Korea in retaliation for a leafleting campaign by South Korean civilians, further raising tensions between the war-torn nations amid a diplomatic impasse over North Korea’s nuclear program.
The resumption of loudspeaker broadcasting in South Korea was announced last week by South Korea. Paused A de-escalation agreement was signed with North Korea in 2018. The move could prompt South Korea to resume propaganda activities and military drills with live ammunition in the border area.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected about 330 balloons launched southward by North Korea since Saturday night, and about 80 had been found within South Korean territory as of Sunday morning. The military said easterly winds on Saturday night likely caused many of the balloons to be blown away from South Korean territory.
The South Korean military said that plastic, paper and other debris fell from the balloon after it landed, but no harmful substances were found.
The military, which mobilised chemical rapid response units and explosive ordnance removal units to recover the North Korean balloons and supplies, warned citizens to be wary of falling objects, not to touch any balloons found on the ground and to report them to police or military authorities.
Saturday’s balloon launch was North Korea’s third since May 28. In North Korea’s previous two balloon launches, South Korean officials said about 1,000 balloons Debris tied into plastic bags containing fertilizer, cigarette butts, rags, used batteries and waste paper was strewn across roads, residential areas, schools, etc. No particularly dangerous substances were found and no major damage was reported.
North Korea’s Deputy Defense Minister Kim Gang Il later said that North Korea Stop the balloon campaign However, they threatened to resume their activities if South Korean activists distributed leaflets again.
Ignore the warning and Korean private organization A group of activists led by defector Park Sang-hak said they launched 10 balloons carrying 200,000 anti-North Korea leaflets, USB sticks containing K-pop and Korean dramas, and one-dollar bills from a border town on Thursday. South Korean media reported that another group of activists also launched a balloon carrying 200,000 propaganda leaflets into North Korea on Friday.
The South Korean authorities North Korean trash balloon He called Iran’s missile launches and other recent provocations “absurd” and “irrational” and warned of strong retaliatory measures.
Using loudspeakers, South Korea may blast anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, K-pop songs and outside news across the border into its heavily armed enemy – something analysts say North Korea is extremely sensitive about for fear it could undermine morale among its frontline troops and civilians and ultimately weaken leader Kim Jong Un’s grip on power.
When South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts in 2015 for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery shells across the border, prompting South Korea to fire back, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.
Kim Jong Un has intensified his campaign in recent years to reject Korean cultural and linguistic influences. In January, he declared that North Korea had abandoned its long-held goal of peaceful unification with South Korea and rewrote the constitution to portray South Korea as a permanent enemy. Experts say Kim’s efforts to strengthen North Korea’s unique identity may be aimed at strengthening the dynastic rule of the Kim family.
North Korea’s balloon campaign may also be intended to sow division within South Korea over the conservative government’s hardline stance toward North Korea.
South Korean Liberal Party lawmakers, some civic groups and frontline residents have urged the government to ask leaflet-distributing activists to stop releasing balloons to avoid unnecessary clashes with North Korea, but government authorities have not made the same appeal as they did last year. Constitutional Court ruling The law that made distributing anti-North Korea leaflets a crime as a violation of freedom of speech was repealed.
