North Korean Trash Balloon Lands at South Korean Presidential Complex

JAKARTA - North Korean balloons carrying trash have landed near South Korea's presidential office, with the country's military confirming that Pyongyang had sent up a number of balloons containing trash on Wednesday.

"With the current wind direction to the west, the suspected trash balloons aimed at South Korea are moving toward the northern part of Gyeonggi," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, as reported by Reuters on July 24.

The agency said in a statement that the North Korean balloons flew north of Seoul on Wednesday morning after crossing the border. They urged people to be wary of falling objects, quoted by CTV News.

Later in the morning, South Korean media reported that several North Korean balloons had fallen on the South Korean presidential office complex and the Defense Ministry. The report said authorities collected the balloons after finding they were not carrying dangerous goods.

It was North Korea's 10th launch since late May. More than 2,000 large balloons have so far dropped waste paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and manure on South Korea.

The debris carried by the balloons was identified in the area around a government complex in Yongsan county, the security service said in a statement.

Since May, North Korea has periodically sent hundreds of balloons carrying various types of trash across the heavily fortified border with South Korea, prompting the South Korean military to resume loudspeaker broadcasts targeting the North.

North Korea says it is responding to an ongoing propaganda campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in the South, who regularly send anti-Pyongyang leaflets, alongside food, medicine, money and USB sticks containing K-pop videos and dramas.

President Yoon Suk-yeol has broken with decades of tradition and moved from the more remote Blue House to the South Korean presidential office in Yongsan, a central district in Seoul, since 2022.