UN Command Investigate North Korea-South Korea's High Tension Through Waste Balloons To K-Pop Speakers

Illustration - Map of South Korea and North Korea. BETWEEN/Pixabay/pri. (ANTARA/Pixabay)

JAKARTA - United Nations (UNC) Command led by the United States said it was investigating a series of incidents on the inter-Korean border that took place earlier this week.

The incident in question is a brief attack on the border by North Korean troops and the resumption of South Korea's anti-Pyongyang broadcast.

"We are carrying out our mission seriously at the UN Command and are currently investigating issues very closely," UNC said.

UNC is a ceasefire enforcer that halted fighting in the Korean War 1950-1953 and oversees activities within the DMZ, a buffer zone between the two Koreas since the three-year conflict ended without a peace treaty.

Our actions are in accordance with the Ceasefire Agreement as we seek to defuse the situation to ensure peace and stability in the region. We continue to call on the DPRK (North Korea) to re-dialogize using the mechanisms we have," he said.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Jeon Hak-kyou, said it would actively support UNC's investigation.

UNC is also investigating the launch of a balloon filled with garbage by North Korea and calls it a violation of the ceasefire.

The investigation comes amid rising cross-border tensions sparked by North Korea's recent waste-carrying balloon campaign.

Since May 28, North Korea is expected to have launched more than 1,600 balloons in the so-called retaliatory response (tit-for-tat) to anti-Pyongyang leaflets carried out by activists in South Korea.

On Sunday (9/10), about 20 North Korean soldiers crossed the Military Demarcation Line inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates the two Koreas, in the middle of the border before withdrawing to the north after South Korea opened warning shots, according to the Seoul military.

The attack comes just hours before South Korea broadcasts anti-Pyongyang broadcasts to North Korea for the first time in six years in response to the launch of a garbage-carrier balloon. South Korea installed speakers with propaganda broadcasts including the K-Pop song.

Over the years, North Korean defectors in the South and conservative activists have sent leaflets to North Korea in balloons to help encourage North Koreans to eventually rise against Kim's family regime.

North Korea has denounced the propaganda campaign amid concerns that the entry of information from outside could pose a threat to its leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea also reacted angrily to loudspeakers on the South Korean border that broadcast critical messages against the North Korean regime and fired artillery fire at South Korea in 2015 over the broadcast.