It looks like the ROK government may have come up with their response to North Korea’s trash balloon attacks even though they deny it:

 North Korea said Sunday it has ordered its artillery corps near the border with South Korea to fully prepare to shoot after the North threatened a “horrible disaster” over the alleged flight of drones over its capital.

North Korea claimed the South had sent unmanned drones over Pyongyang three times this month. 

In a statement carried by its state media, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, said the North was ready to take a “strong corresponding retaliatory action” in case drones carrying anti-Pyongyang materials are flown again into the North, warning that the “attack time” can come at any time.

In response, South Korea’s defense ministry said any attempts by the North to harm its people would result in the end of the Kim regime. 

On Friday, North Korea’s foreign ministry claimed that South Korean drones carrying leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang on Oct. 3, as well as Wednesday and Thursday of this week, and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again. South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied that the military had sent any drones across the border, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff later said it could not confirm whether the North’s claims were true.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the activist group Fighters for a Free North Korea flew this drone with a wink and a nod from the ROK government?

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

This is really just symbolic because the road and railway lines are not being used anyway:

North Korea’s military said it will cut off all roads and railways connected to South Korea starting Wednesday and build “strong defense structures” in the areas in response to South Korea-U.S. military maneuvers.

“A project will be launched first on October 9 to completely cut off roads and railways connected to” South Korea and “fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defense structures,” the general staff of the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) said in a report carried by the Korean Central News Agency, noting the measures will “completely separate” North Korea’s territory from that of South Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but North Korea is probably betting that whenever another leftwinger gets elected to President of South Korea they will pay to rebuild these road and rail links anyway.

The Korea Times has an article published that discusses what little options South Korea has to deter North Korea’s trash balloons:

Complicating matters for them is the apparent shift in North Korea’s intentions behind the balloon launches. Initially, Pyongyang claimed the balloons were in retaliation against anti-North Korean leaflets sent by South Korean civic groups, many of which consist of defectors from the North.

“The regime has continued the balloon campaign even after the leaflet launches stopped. This suggests that the balloons are now a tit-for-tat response to South Korea’s use of loudspeakers along the border,” Yang said.

In late July, South Korea resumed propaganda broadcasts across the border in response to the balloon launches. These broadcasts operate simultaneously from fixed loudspeakers in the border regions at full volume.

A military official said that the broadcasts are still operating from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. but declined to provide further details, citing operational secrecy.

“Instead of blasting the broadcasts day and night, our military should use the broadcasts more flexibly depending on the North’s behavior, such as switching them on only when it launches the balloons and turning them off when it remains silent for days,” Cho said.

Yang suggested that an ideal scenario would be for both Koreas to agree to a moratorium on psychological warfare, although this seems unlikely given their hawkish stances and the absence of a communication channel.

The professor also mentioned the possibility of international organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) — where both South and North Korea are member states — mediating to ease tensions caused by the balloons.

He added, “Unless the government takes swift action, we are going to see thousands of more balloons since conditions are becoming more favorable for North Korea’s balloon launches, with winds blowing southward in the fall.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I don’t think North Korea has any intentions of stopping the trash balloons. It is a low cost gray area provocation for them that is providing them valuable military intelligence on where these balloons are landing while disrupting South Korean society. This disruption is putting pressure from the public on the Yoon administration to do something when there is really not much they can do.

I think for Moon Da-hye, illegal parking and running a red light is probably the least of her legal troubles at this point:

A  vehicle reportedly driven by Moon Da-hye appears to enter an intersection in Yongsan District, central Seoul. Moon disregarded traffic signals while allegedly under the influence of alcohol on Saturday, according to camera footage. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter, accused of drunk driving in Itaewon, Yongsan District, is also suspected of illegally parking her car for hours in the area, according to media reports on Monday.

Moon Da-hye, daughter of the former president, is accused of parking her Hyundai Casper — a small SUV — in front of a construction site in Itaewon, close to a busy street and several restaurants.  
  
According to the Yongsan District Office, the area is marked with a yellow dotted line, which prohibits drivers from parking in the space for more than five minutes. If she had been caught, she would have faced a fine of 40,000 won ($30). 
  
Moon is suspected of parking her car at 6:57 p.m. Friday before heading to a nearby restaurant. The car remained parked for about seven hours until she returned at around 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, allegedly inebriated. 
  
She is also accused of driving through a red light and making an improper left turn at an intersection. She then collided with a taxi while changing lanes in front of the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon at 2:51 a.m., according to Yongsan police. 
  
Moon has been booked on charges of drunk driving in violation of the Road Traffic Act. Her blood alcohol level was reportedly 0.14 percent, significantly above the legal limit of 0.08 percent, which is the threshold for revoking a driver’s license.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.