North Korea has sent hundreds of new balloons loaded with debris toward the South, the South Korean military announced Saturday, the latest in a series of similar incidents.
Pyongyang launched around 190 balloons on Friday evening, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said. Around a hundred of these balloons have already landed in South Korea, especially in the north of the country. The bags attached to the balloons contained “mainly paper and plastic waste”specified the same source.
The latest launch came in the context of a visit to South Korea by outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday.
Almost five thousand balloons since May
Pyongyang has launched nearly 5,000 balloons toward the South since May, saying they were in retaliation for propaganda balloons launched toward the North by South Korean militants.
Relations between the two neighbors are at their lowest point in years, with North Korea recently reporting the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers on its southern border.
In response, South Korea resumed broadcasting propaganda through loudspeakers along the border, completely suspended a military agreement aimed at reducing tensions, and resumed live-fire exercises on border islands and near the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula.
