Seoul flies leaflets against Pyongyang’s garbage balloon attacks

The South Korean military announced plans to immediately reinstall loudspeakers along the border if North Korea resumes its "garbage balloon" attacks, according to a statement on Thursday. The military also indicated that it is prepared to resume loudspeaker broadcasts simultaneously with the installation if the scale of the attacks is deemed significant. Early Thursday morning, a group of North Korean defectors launched ten balloons carrying 200,000 leaflets into North Korea. In fact, the North had announced to suspend their attacks on Sunday night, threatening to resume its attacks with balloons filled with garbage in an amount 100 times greater if the South resumes distributing leaflets.

The South Korean military is on high alert, anticipating potential large-scale provocations from North Korea using Seoul’s leaflet campaign as a pretext. On Thursday, the government had previously suspended the entirety of the September 19 inter-Korean military agreement in response to North Korea's garbage balloon attacks. Observers warn that a cycle of retaliatory actions could significantly escalate military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

During a Memorial Day ceremony at Seoul National Cemetery, President Yoon Suk Yeol addressed the recent provocations, saying, "While South Korea has become one of the brightest countries in the world, the area north of the Demilitarized Zone remains one of the darkest." "Following the shelling on the West Sea and missile launches, Pyongyang conducted despicable provocations that any normal country would have been ashamed of," he said, condemning North Korea's recent garbage balloon attacks, and vowed that his government would not ignore North Korea's threats.


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