North Korea launches balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea

North Korea resumes balloon launches towards South Korea in response to leafleting activities, raising tensions between the two countries.

North Korea resumed flying balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on July 18, the South's military said, days after it vowed to respond to what it called new South Korean civilian leafleting activities across the border.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the balloons were flying north of Seoul, which is about an hour’s drive from the border, on July 18 afternoon.

It warned the South Korea public to be cautious of falling objects and report to authorities if they spot balloons on the ground.

Starting in late May, North Korea has floated more than 2,000 balloons carrying wastepaper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure toward South Korea, saying they were in response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets to the North via their own balloons. No hazardous materials were found.

In response, South Korea suspended a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea, resuming propaganda broadcasts briefly and front-line live-fire military drills at border areas.

The Cold War-style campaigns between the Koreas had paused after North Korea last sent rubbish-carrying balloons toward South Korea in late June.

Earlier this week, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said South Korean balloons have been found again at border and other areas in North Korea. In her statement on July 16, Kim Yo-jong threatened new retaliatory steps, saying South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price.” That raised concerns that North Korea could stage physical provocations, rather than balloon launches.