Since Tuesday, nearly 1,000 balloons have been launched by Pyongyang towards its neighbor. Seoul denounced a “low-level” attack and threatened reprisals.
Truce in sight between the two neighbors after this atypical episode? North Korea pledged on Sunday June 2 to “suspend” the launch towards South Korea of balloons filled with waste, ranging from cigarette butts to animal excrement, after launching several hundred over the past few years. days.
“We will temporarily suspend the dispersal of waste paper across the border,” said the official North Korean agency KCNA, ensuring that this “countermeasure” had been effective.
Since Tuesday, nearly 1,000 balloons have been launched by Pyongyang towards its neighbor, including 600 on Sunday, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Seoul denouncing a “low-level” action and threatening reprisals. On Sunday, around 10:00 a.m. local time, between 20 to 50 balloons per hour were recorded in the air by the South Korean army.
“Limited armed conflict in border areas”
The balloons landed in South Korea’s northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi region, which together are home to almost half of the South’s population. South Korea said the North Korean initiative contravened the armistice agreement that ended hostilities between the two Koreas in 1953, even though “no dangerous substances were found” in the balloons. .
The South Korean general staff asked the public to avoid “all contact” with this waste. “Our military carries out surveillance and reconnaissance operations of the balloon launch sites, tracks them by aerial reconnaissance and collects fallen debris, giving priority to public safety,” he added.
Before the announcement of the suspension of these shipments, South Korea’s National Security Council had planned to meet on Sunday to decide on a response. According to the South Korean agency Yonhap, this could result in a resumption of propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers on the border with North Korea. “If Seoul chooses to resume broadcasts against the North via loudspeakers, which Pyongyang hates as much as anti-Kim balloons, it could lead to a limited armed conflict in the border areas,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of strategy at the Sejong Institute.
“Sincere gifts”
The Seoul municipality sent an alert message to residents on Saturday after the detection of new balloons, about the presence of “an unidentified object presumed to be North Korean propaganda leaflets”. Pyongyang said earlier this week that its balloons, “sincere gifts”, were aimed at responding to the sending into its territory of balloons loaded with propaganda leaflets against leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea has long been exasperated by these actions of South Korean activists, who sometimes also send money, rice or USB sticks of South Korean television dramas. In 2018, during a period of détente between the two countries, the two leaders agreed to “completely cease all hostile acts against each other in all areas.”
Freedom of expression
South Korea’s parliament passed a law in 2020 to criminalize sending leaflets to the North. But the law, which was not respected by activists, was overturned last year as violating free speech. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong-Un’s sister, taunted South Korea over the balloons this week, saying the North Koreans were just practicing their freedom of speech.
The balloon campaign comes after analysts assured that Kim Jong-Un had ordered tests on weapons before sending them to Russia for his war in Ukraine. According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, Pyongyang sent around 10,000 containers of weapons to Moscow in exchange for Russian expertise on satellites.
