North Korea announced it would cease sending trash-filled balloons into South Korea, claiming that its campaign had provided the South Koreans with “sufficient experience of how unpleasant they feel.”
The announcement followed South Korea’s declaration that it would impose “unbearable” retaliatory measures against North Korea in response to the balloon activities and other provocations.
Observers suggest that South Korea may resume front-line loudspeaker broadcasts into North Korea, which typically include criticism of North Korea’s human rights record, global news, and K-pop songs. North Korea is particularly sensitive to these broadcasts because most of its 26 million citizens do not have official access to foreign media.
It remains unclear whether South Korea will proceed with its punitive measures following North Korea’s suspension of the balloon launches.
On Sunday night, Kim Kang Il, a North Korean vice defense minister, stated that North Korea would temporarily halt its balloon activities, which he described as a countermeasure against previous South Korean leaflet campaigns.
“We made the Republic of Korea (ROK) clans experience how unpleasant they feel and how much effort is required to clean up the scattered wastepaper,” Kim said in a statement carried by state media.
He warned that if South Korean activists resumed sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets via balloons, North Korea would respond by sending a significantly larger quantity of rubbish-filled balloons.
Earlier that day, South Korea’s military reported finding more than 700 balloons from North Korea in various parts of the country, in addition to approximately 260 balloons discovered a few days prior. The balloons carried manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste paper, and vinyl, but no hazardous materials, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Kim stated that North Korea had launched 3,500 balloons carrying 15 tons of wastepaper.
South Korea’s national security director, Chang Ho-jin, announced earlier on Sunday that the government had decided to take “unbearable” measures against North Korea in response to its balloon launches, alleged GPS signal jamming, and recent nuclear strike simulations against the South.
Chang described the North’s balloon campaign and alleged GPS jamming as “absurd, irrational provocations that a normal country can’t imagine,” accusing North Korea of trying to incite “public anxiety and chaos” in South Korea.
North Korea often reacts angrily to South Korean civilian leafleting because the propaganda messages criticize the North’s authoritarian regime and provide external news. In 2020, North Korea demolished an empty South Korean-built liaison office in response to such balloon activities.
Experts believe that North Korea’s balloon campaign, reportedly the first in seven years, aims to create internal discord in South Korea over its conservative government’s hardline stance on the North. They also suggest that North Korea may further escalate tensions ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
Since 2022, North Korea has significantly increased its weapons tests to expand its nuclear arsenal. Last week, it conducted a series of drills simulating a preemptive nuclear attack on South Korea.
