It will be interesting to see if the Yoon administration has the political will to continue to allow the defector groups to send propaganda balloons into North Korea when the response is this:
North Korea is once again sending balloons presumed to be carrying trash to South Korea on Saturday, Seoul’s military said, after it launched nearly 1,000 similar balloons across the border since last week.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff advised people not to touch the objects and report them to nearby military or police authorities, and cautioned of possible damage from the balloons, adding the balloons may move southward overnight due to a change in the direction of the wind.
Since May 28, North Korea has sent the trash-loaded balloons across the border into South Korea, which it described as a “tit-for-tat” response to anti-Pyongyang leafleting.
The North announced it would temporarily suspend the balloon campaign after Seoul warned of “unendurable” countermeasures, but threatened to send “a hundred times the amount of toilet paper and filth” in response to any further leafleting from the South.
Despite the threats, North Korean defector groups have continued their anti-regime campaigns on Thursday and Friday.
You can read more at the link, but this is a provocation that the North Koreans can pretty much continue to do indefinitely. I just don’t see any response by South Korea other than outlawing the defector groups from flying their balloons to end these trash attacks.
Another sign of past inter-Korean cooperation is being torn down in North Korea:
South Korea’s spy agency said Wednesday it has detected signs that North Korea has recently been demolishing some sections on the northern side of the inter-Korean railway on the east coast in an apparent move to erase the legacy of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation.
South and North Korea agreed to restore two railways — the Gyeongui and Donghae — in 2000, when the divided countries held the first summit of their leaders. The Donghae railway linked eastern coastal cities across the heavily fortified border.
It is pretty amazing how far some of the trash filled balloons from North Korea were able to fly into South Korea, to include Osan Airbase:
The U.S. military confirmed Monday that debris found near an on-base school the previous day had been carried by balloon from North Korea. The inflatable came down Sunday on Osan Air Base, near Osan Elementary School, according to principal Allyse Struhs’ email to parents and guardians that evening.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman David Kim said in a statement Monday that at least one North Korean balloon was found at Osan, home of 7th Air Force and the 51st Fighter Wing about 30 miles south of Seoul. “The debris primarily consisted of basketball-size black plastic bags filled with trash and cloth, which were deemed safe with no threat to the public after investigation,” he wrote.
Moon believes the main reason behind the breakdown of the 2019 Hanoi summit was “the US’ failure to understand the implications of the irreversible closure of the Yongbyon nuclear complex and the complete closure of the Nuclear Weapons Institute.” https://t.co/ryYo4NHmyl
N. Korea stages GPS jamming attack for 4th day This photo, provided by the office of Ongjin County on June 1, 2024, shows a GPS screen over areas surrounding South Korea’s border island of Yeonpyeong. The South Korean military said it detected North Korea’s attempt to jam GPS signals near the western sea border for the fourth consecutive day. (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see if the Yoon administration stops Park Hang-sak and his group, Fighters for a Free North Korea, from sending propaganda balloons to North Korea in order to put and end to the North Korean trash attacks:
A cleaner takes away bags of trash carried airborne by North Korean balloons in a parking lot outside a shopping mall in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, on June 2, 2024. (Yonhap)
North Korea said Sunday it will temporarily stop sending trash-filled balloons across the border to South Korea, though it also threatened to resume such operations if Seoul sends more anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il claimed Pyongyang had sent 3,500 balloons, carrying 15 tons worth of debris, toward South Korea between Tuesday night and Sunday morning.
Kim offered to temporarily halt that activity because it was solely in response to anti-communist leaflets flown up north by South Korean activists.
Kim added that should South Korea send such leaflets again, North Korea will retaliate with balloons carrying “garbage amounting to 100 times” the quantity of those propaganda pieces of paper.
It will be interesting to see how long the Kim regimes decides to keep launching these trash attacks:
North Korea has sent around 600 more balloons carrying trash to South Korea and continued jamming GPS signals for five straight days against the South, Seoul’s military said Sunday, as South Korea’s presidential office was considering taking countermeasures.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it has detected more than 600 balloons that floated across the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas and fell in different parts of the country between 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.
The balloons carried various pieces of trash, such as cigarette butts, paper and plastic bags, just like the previous balloons, according to the JCS.
“About 20 to 50 balloons are moving per hour through the air and coming down in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, North Chungcheong Province, and North Gyeongsang Province,” a JCS official said on the condition of anonymity, adding it is possible more balloons will be detected.
You can read more at the link, but these trash attacks are actually very clever. It is a cheap provocation with little threat of escalation that puts pressure on the Yoon administration to negotiate to stop them the longer they go on.
‘Garbage’ balloons presumably sent by N. Korea This photo, provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shows garbage littered from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, found in Seoul’s Guro Ward on May 29, 2024. Some 90 such balloons have been discovered so far, according to military and police sources, adding that they contained trash and other waste. (Yonhap)
It is interesting that Kim Jong-un has come out and publicly acknowledged the failed satellite launch. I think this is probably because the Kim regime wants satellite launches to be viewed as a civilian action and being transparent about them supports that narrative:
North Korea’s leader acknowledged Monday’s failed attempt to place a spy satellite into orbit but vowed to work harder to boost his country’s space capabilities, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Kim Jong Un made the rare admission during a speech to scientists at the Academy of Defense Sciences in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the day after a rocket carrying the satellite exploded roughly two minutes after launch.
“This launch failed … but there is something that we need to clarify, whether it was successful or not,” he said, according to Wednesday’s KCNA report. “The possession of military reconnaissance satellites is necessary for our country to strengthen self-defense. “Through failure, we can learn more and develop in a bigger way,” he added.
