I have to give the Kim regime points for creativity on this latest provocation because this is definitely a new one:
North Korea has sent more than 150 balloons carrying trash across the inter-Korean border, Seoul’s military said Wednesday, after the North warned of “tit-for-tat action” against anti-Pyongyang leaflets flown by the South’s activists.
Since Tuesday night, the balloons have crossed the border to fall in various locations across the country, reaching as far as the southeastern province of South Gyeongsang, and scatter waste as they fell to the ground, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The fallen balloons appeared to have carried various pieces of trash, such as plastic bottles, batteries, shoe parts and even manure, a JCS official said, with military officials collecting the objects for a detailed analysis.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I can remember over 20 years ago when North Korea was sending propaganda leaflets into South Korea and it appears we are going back to those times:
South Korea’s military said Tuesday it is vetting objects assumed to be propaganda leaflets distributed by North Korea.
“The military is taking measures after unidentified objects assumed to be North Korean propaganda leaflets were found in border areas in Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a notice sent to the press.
The JCS advised residents in the areas to refrain from accessing the objects and report to nearby military or police authorities in the event they discover such objects.
Earlier, North Korea warned of taking “tit-for-tat action” against the distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets in border areas.
“Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them,” Kim Kang-il, the North’s vice defense minister, said in a statement released via state media, using the acronym for South Korea’s official name.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Since North Korea has never recognized the NLL from their point of view any South Korean movements along the NLL are violations they can use as an excuse for a provocation:
The current NLL is depicted with the Blue line and North Korea’s claimed NLL is depicted with the Red line.
North Korea threatened Sunday to take action against South Korea over what it claims are violations of the de facto western maritime border, ratcheting up tensions ahead of a trilateral summit in Seoul.
North Korea’s supreme military leadership instructed its army on Friday to take offensive action against the encroachment upon its sovereignty, North Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il said, according to the country’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“We officially warn that we can never tolerate such continued encroachment on our maritime sovereignty and that we may exercise our self-defensive power on or under the water at any moment,” Kim said in a statement carried by the KCNA.
The statement came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will have back-to-back bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the presidential office.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I hope the Russian rocket technology has a warranty the North Koreans can cash in on after this latest launch failure:
North Korea said Tuesday that its latest attempt to launch a new rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure due to the midair explosion of the rocket during the first-stage flight this week.
The vice general director of the North’s National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) said the rocket carrying the satellite, the Malligyong-1-1, exploded after it lifted off from the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on the country’s northwest coast on Monday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The launch came just hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a trilateral summit in Seoul and reaffirmed their commitment to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This really shouldn’t be very surprising to anyone that North Korea would take some kind of provocation prior to the U.S. election:
U.S. officials are bracing for North Korea to potentially take its “most provocative” military action in a decade ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, possibly at the urging of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NBC News reported Friday.
Citing six senior U.S. officials, the broadcaster also said that the United States has contingency plans to respond in the event of Pyongyang taking aggressive action in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, or shelling South Korean border islands — belligerence unseen since 2010.
“We have no doubt that North Korea will be provocative this year. It’s just a matter of how escalatory it is,” a U.S. intelligence official was quoted by NBC News as saying.
It said that the U.S. officials believe the timing of the North’s provocation could be designed to “create turmoil in yet another part of the world,” as the presidential race is set to be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Anyone believe Kim Yo-jong’s claim:
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again denied Friday that her country has exported any weapons to Russia, as she labeled outside speculation on North Korea-Russian arms dealings as “the most absurd paradox.” The U.S., South Korea and others have steadfastly accused North Korea of supplying artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for advanced military technologies and economic aid.
Both North Korea and Russia have repeatedly dismissed that. Foreign experts believe North Korea’s recent series of artillery and short-range missile tests were meant to examine or advertise the weapons it was planning to sell to Russia. Kim Yo Jong called outside assessments on the North Korean-Russian dealings “the most absurd paradox which is not worth making any evaluation or interpretation.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
I don’t know why anyone would want to visit North Korea other than for morbid curiosity. Ever dollar spent there is helping to fund the regime:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on tourist exchanges between Moscow and Pyongyang and preparations for his visit to North Korea are underway, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian news agency TASS on Saturday (local time) quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, “Preparations for the visit are proceeding at their own pace.”
Putin has not visited North Korea since July 2000.
TASS also reported that Alexander Kozlov, the environment minister for Moscow, who is leading an intergovernmental commission on cooperation with North Korea, touted the growing popularity of tourist exchanges between the two countries during his meeting with Putin earlier Saturday.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
