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By Micah McCartney
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North Korea has once again launched balloons presumed to be carrying waste into the South, further escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
About 350 balloons were sent from Monday night, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Authorities issued a push notification advising the public to beware of falling objects. Citizens were urged to keep away from the balloons and report them to the police or military.
Since late May, North Korea has sent over 1,000 balloons carrying waste, bits of cloth, and discarded batteries into the South. The balloon campaign is in retaliation for balloons sent north by South Korean activists, primarily North Korean defectors, delivering leaflets critical of the Kim regime and USB sticks with South Korean pop music.
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South Korean officials have reported finding parasites believed to have come from human feces, including roundworms and threadworms, in bags carried by some of the North Korean balloons.
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Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, criticized the leaflets as "dirty wastepaper" and the defectors "human scum." She warned of impending "trouble" because of the continued balloon launches from the South.
Fighters for a Free North Korea, a South Korean activist group, reported sending 300,000 leaflets, 5,000 USB drives, and 3,000 U.S. one-dollar bills on June 20. Another group, Free North Korea Radio, told Stars and Stripes earlier this month it had sent a total of 1 million propaganda pieces as well as shortwave radios since last year.
"In the meantime, it's [in] a strange way almost reassuring that Pyongyang still cares enough about what the South says and does to send trash its way," Sean King, Asia scholar and senior vice president of New York-based consultancy Park Strategies, told Newsweek.
King predicted the balloon exchanges would continue "so long as there's a government in Seoul that allows its citizens the freedom of expression to send their oppressed brothers and sisters in the North news of the outside world," he added.
Exposure to South Korean media is a significant concern for Pyongyang, which tightly controls information in the country.
Foreign media is banned, with severe penalties for violations, including lengthy terms at prison camps and public executions. This tight control aims to prevent North Koreans from accessing outside information that could undermine the regime.
The North Korean embassy in China and the South Korean embassy in the U.S. did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.
The use of propaganda balloons dates back to the Korean War and continued through the Cold War.
Both Koreas extensively used these methods to disseminate psychological messages across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two neighbors, which are technically still at war given a peace treaty hasn't been signed since the end of major hostilities in 1953.
Inter-Korean ties are at their lowest point in decades amid the North's monthslong spate of missile tests, shows of force and surveillance satellite launches by both countries. The suspension of a 2018 agreement intended to reduce conflict risk along the DMZ has further aggravated the situation.
On June 9, South Korea responded to the North's waves of balloons by redeploying high-power loudspeakers at the border to broadcast anti-Pyongyang propaganda and music meant to undermine Pyongyang by highlighting the freedoms enjoyed in the South.
The balloon campaigns from both sides have drawn international attention and condemnation. The U.S. State Department labeled North Korea's actions as "disgusting" and "childish." South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol described the North's actions as "despicable provocations" and vowed strong retaliation.
Update 06/25/24, 11.57 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Sean King.
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