Tag: North Korea

Considering everything going on lately with the North Koreans; I have to wonder if this crossing into South Korea was really inadvertant or not?:

About 20 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the inter-Korean land border earlier this week and went back to the North’s side after the South’s military fired warning shots, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday.

The North Korean soldiers crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas in the central section of the border at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The South Korean military conducted warning broadcasts and fired warning shots, prompting the North Koreans to return to their side of the border, the JCS said, adding that there was no unusual activity after the warning shots.

JCS spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun said the military assesses the soldiers, who were working on an unspecified task inside the DMZ, did not intend to cross the MDL, considering that they returned immediately after the warning shots.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I suspect we will see North Korea launch their own loudspeaker broadcasts along with more trash attacks in the near future:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened Sunday to take “new responses” if South Korea keeps sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border and blasting loudspeaker broadcasts, calling it a “prelude to a very dangerous situation.”

The statement by Kim Yo-jong came after the South resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North in retaliation against the North’s repeated sending of trash-filled balloons amid rising tensions in the inter-Korean border regions.

“Seoul’s politicians are continuing to create a new crisis environment … They are formalizing once again provocative behaviors by resuming loudspeaker provocations as a countermeasure to our challenging initiatives,” Kim said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim claimed that the North was going to stop sending the balloons early this week, but it ended up flying more in response to the anti-Pyongyang leafleting by North Korean defectors and activists in the South.

“Our counteraction (of sending balloons) was to end on the 9th, but the situation has changed … The loudspeaker broadcast provocation has finally begun in border areas. This is a prelude to a very dangerous situation,” she said.

“If South Korea chooses to engage in the leaflet-scattering and loudspeaker provocations across the border, without a doubt, they will witness our new response,” Kim said. Kim, however, did not specify what the new responses will be.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

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.

Yonhap

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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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.

Yonhap

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.