North Korea has dropped at least 260 balloons carrying rubbish in the South, prompting authorities to warn its residents to stay indoors.
South Korea’s military also cautioned the public against touching the white balloons and the plastic bags attached to them because they contain “filthy waste and trash”.
The balloons have been found in eight of nine provinces in South Korea and are now being analysed.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The recent incident comes days after North Korea said it would retaliate against the “frequent scattering of leaflets and other rubbish” in border areas by activists in the South.
“Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them,” North Korea’s vice-minister of defence Kim Kang Il said in a statement to state media on Sunday.Republic of Korea or ROK is the official name of South Korea while the North is called DPRK or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.Late on Tuesday, residents living north of the South’s capital Seoul and in the border region received text messages from their provincial authorities asking them to “refrain from outdoor activities”.They were also asked to file a report at the nearest military base or police station if they spot an “unidentified object”.
Photographs shared on social media show bags attached via string to white translucent balloons carrying toilet paper, dark soil, and batteries, among other contents.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that “some of the fallen balloons carried what appears to be faeces judging from its dark colour and odour”.South Korea’s military condemned the act as a “clear violation of international law”.
North Korea is entirely liable for what happens due to the balloons and we sternly warn North Korea to immediately stop this inhumane and crass action," the military said.In addition to anti-Pyongyang propaganda, activists in South Korea have launched balloons carrying among other things, cash, banned media content, and even Choco Pies - a South Korean snack banned in the North.Earlier this month, a South Korea-based activist group claimed it had sent 20 balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets and USB sticks containing Korean pop music and music videos across the border.Seoul’s parliament passed a law in December 2020 that criminalises the launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets, but critics have raised concerns related to freedom of speech and human rights.North Korea has also launched balloons southward that attacked Seoul’s leaders.
In one such launch 2016, the balloons reportedly carried toilet paper, cigarette butts and rubbish.
The original article contains 489 words, the summary contains 355 words. Saved 27%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
“Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them,” North Korea’s vice-minister of defence Kim Kang Il said
They are truly diabolical. It is an unprecedented escalation, I think they are one step away from total war.
Sure. This is a Bugs Bunny cartoon. South drops leaflets, North drops trash…
Nukes flying!
Is this sarcasm? They’re TPing each other’s houses.
Sorry if I’m being rude, but in a context where threats of destruction and announcements of new missiles are the norm, suddenly throwing garbage bags into your neighbor’s yard and saying “will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them” strikes me as too funny! Like a parody of a B-series villain.
Not rude. Per the article, this is North Korea’s response to groups in South Korea sending balloons with propaganda leaflets and stuff (unsolicited care packages, basically) north. It seems they feel the south isn’t doing enough to prevent these.
It seems more childish than diabolical, but I would do the same probably as a last resort. Like throwing somebody’s McDonald’s bag back into their car.
Don’t throw it, just carefully place it under their windshield wiper
Is this supposed to be a response to the propaganda leaflets that got dropped on North Korea?
I wasn’t aware that had happened recently, but I know it was a thing in the past.
I remember one big thing was thumb drives with south korean tv shows which the people really want and the government really does not want them to have. It seems north koreans will watch the shows even though its extremely risky for them to do so.
normal North Koreans have access to private computers that can read thumb drives??
im not sure you need a computer per se. some tvs can list media from a drive and you can click to play it. still I would be surprised the average even has that from what I see. Would not be surprised if the priveleged are taking the risk and they have more to lose.
I’m pretty sure South Korea produces orders of magnitude more waste than North on account of them having an economy so I’d be careful starting this kind of game.
Yes, but when the next one has radioactive waste or a biohazard in it…
Landfill cannons, lol.
How mature.
How manure.
The world is run by internet trolls
Is this an attempt to obscure a real spy balloon? Send over so many trash filled ones that they start ignoring the real deal when it flies overhead?
Either that or just a test run to see how easy it is to sneak shit in on balloons. Apparently it worked.
South Korea has been sending thumb drives containing KPop music across the border on a similar fashion.
Now North Korea sends back bundles of excrement.
I guess it is one way of expressing what they think of KPop…
Kpoop!
This is hilarious lmao
