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By Anezka Pichrtova
Live News Reporter
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North Korea has reportedly once again launched balloons "likely carrying trash" toward its southern neighbor, according to officials.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) resumed its campaign on Wednesday after almost a monthlong break, The Korea Times reported.
The government of Seoul issued text alerts to the capital's residents, according to The Associated Press, and the military urged residents to stay at home and not touch the balloons but to report them to the police or military.
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Newsweek reached out to the South Korean embassy in Washington, D.C., and the
Permanent Mission of the DPRK to the United Nations Office for comment.
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The last time trash balloons were sent over the border was on August 10, according to The Korea Times, with thousands of them reportedly having been launched since May.
Newsweek reported in June that North Korea had admitted to sending "15 tons of wastepaper" to the South as a response to South Korean activists spreading anti-propaganda pamphlets which could pose a threat to leader Kim Jong Un's regime.
"We made the ROK clans get enough experience of how much unpleasant they feel and how much effort is needed to remove the scattered wastepaper," said Kim Kang Il, North Korea's vice defense minister, on June 2, referring the Republic of Korea—the South's official name.
South Korea dismissed the request for intervention in the activists' actions, citing freedom of speech. Witnesses told local media that bags with paper coming from North Korea had a strong odor and some likely contained animal feces.
Newsweek reported at the time that some of the bags contained "numerous parasites, such as roundworms, whipworms and threadworms," all of which are known to infect humans. It was therefore believed that some bags also contained human excrement from which the parasites originated.
At the beginning of July, South Korea started blasting anti-propaganda broadcasts over the border as a response to yet another wave of trash balloons flying into the country. It came after Kim Yo Jong, sister of the North Korean leader, issued a threat to South over activists' leaflets. South Korean activists reportedly sent 20 balloons carrying hundreds of thousands of propaganda leaflets and 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean pop songs and TV dramas.
On July 23, security concerns were raised as one of the North's trash bags landed on the headquarters of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The balloons were reportedly spotted but not shot down to avoid spreading the contents of the bags.
None of the bags that landed on the president's grounds contained dangerous material.
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Update 09/05/24, 5:12 a.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect that Newsweek has reached out for comment from the South Korean embassy and the Permanent Mission of the DPRK to the United Nations Office.
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