North Korea Sends Waste Balloons To South Korea Again, Residents Are Asked To Be Careful And Report To Officers

JAKARTA - South Korean authorities have asked the country's citizens to be careful, after North Korea resumed sending garbage balloons, urging officers to report if they find such a type of balloon.

The South Korean military said balloon flights on Thursday were the second day in a row a new wave of provocations that Seoul criticized were "absurprisingly".

"Because (North Korea) has been flying balloons again since 9 am, we advise the public to be careful of falling objects and report to the nearest military unit or police when they find a balloon falling," the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a notification to reporters., reported The Korea Times September 5.

About 20 balloons were taken in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, with most containing used paper and plastic bottles, the JCS said. No harmful substances were found.

The move came after North Korea sent about 420 garbage-carrying balloons from Wednesday night to Thursday morning in what marked the resumption of its balloon campaign after stopping for nearly a month.

Previously, North Korea since late May has launched thousands of balloons filled with trash in retaliation for anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by defectors and North Korean activists in South Korea.

Prior to the latest event, Pyongyang last launched such a balloon on August 10.

Responding to North Korea's campaign, the South Korean military began broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda every day through loudspeakers at the border in July.

North Korea has strongly opposed leaflets and its anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker campaign, fearing the entry of information from outside could pose a threat to Kim Jong-un's regime.

Separately, South Korea's unifying ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs condemned the repeated balloon campaign as "absurd."

"It is regrettable that North Korea has repeated this unreasonable and vulgar act at a time when the damage caused by heavy rains is severe," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The official also stressed that the volunteer civil activist's voluntary action to disseminate information to North Korea would never be used as an excuse to provocation North Korea against South Korea, referring to anti-Pyongyang leaflets.