South Korea steps up propaganda broadcasts after new North Korean trash balloons

South Korea will broadcast more propaganda to the North in response to Pyongyang sending more balloons carrying garbage across the border, Seoul’s military said Sunday.

The two Koreas have been engaged in a tit-for-tat campaign, with North Korea sending nearly 2,000 balloons filled with garbage to the South since May, in retaliation for propaganda balloons launched by South Korean activists.

In protest against the latest wave of North Korean balloons, the South Korean military said it would increase the scale of its propaganda broadcasts on the front lines.

“Starting at 1:00 p.m. (0400 GMT), our military will conduct large-scale deployments along the borders, as we have repeatedly warned,” a statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday.

“The North is launching a new batch of garbage balloons,” an earlier statement said, as the balloons flew toward the northern part of Gyeonggi.

“Report this to the military or police and avoid direct contact with the objects.”

The latest shipment of balloons comes three days after Seoul announced it had resumed loudspeaker propaganda aimed at North Korea, warning it would expand its reach if North Korea continued sending garbage.

Announcing the start of the large-scale propaganda broadcasts, Seoul warned that the North Korean military “will suffer the greatest damage from the tension-raising actions it will carry out in the border area.”

“We strongly warn that all responsibility lies squarely with the North Korean regime.”

North Korea’s balloons disrupted more than 100 flights carrying a total of 10,000 passengers, a South Korean lawmaker said earlier this month.

In response, Seoul completely suspended a military agreement to ease tensions and announced in June that it would resume propaganda broadcasts along the border.

In addition to the anti-Kim leaflets sent from the South, isolated North Korea is also extremely sensitive about its people’s access to South Korean pop culture products. A recent South Korean government report, for example, points to a 2022 case in which a man was executed for possessing content from the South.

The two Koreas are still formally at war, as the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The propaganda broadcasts, a tactic that dates back to the Korean War, have angered Pyongyang, which has previously threatened artillery strikes on Seoul’s loudspeaker units.

Before the latest propaganda broadcasts, Seoul recently resumed live-fire exercises on the border islands and near the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.

look/fox