North Korea sent around 600 balloons carrying trash to South Korea overnight, Seoul said on Sunday, in Pyongyang's latest move to anger its rival neighbor.
Balloons carrying trash such as cigarette butts, fabrics, waste paper and plastic were found throughout the capital, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
It said the military was monitoring the departure point and carrying out aerial reconnaissance to locate and collect the balloons, which have large garbage bags suspended beneath them.
North Korea on Wednesday sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and excrement across the heavily fortified border as what it called “gifts of sincerity.” Seoul responded angrily, calling the mobile base dangerous.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said during a meeting with US Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore that the balloons violated the armistice, according to the South Korean military.
The two reaffirmed a coordinated response to any North Korean threats and provocations based on the combined defense posture of the South Korea-US alliance, he added.
Emergency alerts were issued in North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces and in some parts of Seoul on Sunday, urging people not to come into contact with the balloons, and to alert the police.
The standing committee of South Korea's National Security Council will meet on Sunday afternoon to discuss the possibility of resuming the use of loudspeakers in North Korea in response to the trash balloons, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the presidential office.
South Korea stopped propaganda across the border in 2018 after a rare summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim)
Source: CNN Brasil
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