North Korea described its campaign as a “countermeasure” against propaganda leaflets brought into the country by South Korean activists.

North Korea announces suspension of broadcasts balloons filled with garbage across the border into South Korea and claimed that his campaign was an effective countermeasure against the propaganda of anti-regime activists in the neighboring country.

Since Tuesday, North Korea has released hundreds of balloons filled with garbage bags containing everything from cigarette butts to pieces of cardboard and plastic, Seoul's military said on Sunday. threaten retaliation if the provocations do not stop.

A few hours later, North Korea announced that it would stop the campaign.

“We have the Republic of Korea [Republic of Korea] “The clans have enough experience of how uncomfortable they feel and how much effort is needed to clear away the scattered waste paper,” Kim Kang Il, North Korea's deputy defense minister, said in a statement carried by state media.

He warned, however, that if South Korean activists Anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets North Korea will re-launch its own balloons to dump garbage worth a hundred times more than the South Korean leaflets found in the North.

'Low class'

South Korea called the balloons and the simultaneous GPS jamming of its nuclear-armed neighbor “irrational” and “inferior.” But in contrast to the flood of recent ballistic missile launchesThe rejection campaign does not violate United Nations sanctions against Kim Jong Un's isolated regime.

Seoul warned that it would take decisive countermeasures if Pyongyang did not stop the balloon attacks, which violated the armistice agreement that ended hostilities in the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Activists in the south have also launched their own balloons across the border, filled with leaflets and sometimes cash, rice or USB sticks with K-dramas.

Earlier this week, Pyongyang described its “sincere gifts” as retaliation for the propaganda-laden balloons sent to North Korea.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South Korean Armed Forces said the balloons landed in northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi region, which together are home to nearly half of South Korea's population.

The last batch of balloons was full of “trash such as cigarette butts, waste paper, pieces of cloth and plastic,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that military officials and police were collecting them.

“Our military is conducting surveillance and reconnaissance operations from the balloon launch points, tracking them through aerial reconnaissance and collecting fallen debris. Public safety is our top priority,” it said.

Balloon Wars

South Korea's National Security Council met on Sunday and a presidential representative said Seoul would not rule out resuming its propaganda campaigns via loudspeakers along the border with North Korea in response to the balloons.

In the past, South Korea has sent anti-Kim propaganda to the North, which has infuriated Pyongyang.

“If Seoul decides to resume anti-North Korean radio broadcasts over loudspeakers along the border – which Pyongyang dislikes as much as anti-Kim balloons – it could lead to limited armed conflict along border areas, such as in the West Sea,” said Cheong Seong-Chang, director of Korean Peninsula strategy at the Sejong Institute.

In 2018, during a period of improved inter-Korean relations, both leaders agreed to “completely cease all hostile actions against each other in all areas,” including the distribution of leaflets.

South Korea's parliament passed a law in 2020 criminalizing the sending of leaflets to the North. The law, which did not deter activists, was repealed last year as a violation of free speech.

Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong – one of Pyongyang's top spokeswomen – mocked South Korea for complaining about the balloons this week, saying North Koreans were merely exercising their right to free speech.