Published June 10, 2024
North Korea sent a new wave of trash-laden balloons toward its southern neighbor late Sunday, after Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister warned of further responses if the South keeps up its “psychological warfare.”
The new balloons, which Seoul has previously slammed as “base and dangerous,” come in apparent retaliation for the decision by South Korea to resume broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda over loudspeakers in border areas.
Kim’s sister and government spokeswoman Kim Yo Jong warned the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts was “a prelude to a very dangerous situation.”
In a statement carried by North Korean state media, Kim said South Korea would be subject to an unspecified “new counteraction” from the North if it continued with the loudspeaker broadcasts and failed to prevent activists from sending anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets over the border.
“I sternly warn Seoul to stop at once this dangerous act,” Kim said, adding that Seoul is creating a “new environment of crisis.”
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SOURCE: www.edition.cnn.com
RELATED: North Korea sends more rubbish balloons to South after Kim sister’s threat
Kim Yo Jong had warned of a ‘crisis of confrontation’ if South Korea did not halt propaganda broadcasts.
North Korea has floated more than 1,000 rubbish-carrying balloons into the South in recent weeks [Yonhap via Reuters]
Published June 10, 2024
North Korea has floated hundreds more refuse-carrying balloons into South Korea after Kim Jong Un’s influential sister warned Seoul to halt propaganda broadcasts across their tense border.
Pyongyang sent more than 300 waste-loaded balloons across the inter-Korean border overnight, South Korea’s military said on Monday, after Kim Yo Jong warned earlier that the loudspeaker broadcasts risked provoking a “crisis of confrontation”.
“This is a prelude to a very dangerous situation,” Kim said in a statement carried by state media on Sunday.
The latest balloons carried only scrap paper and plastic, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, unlike previous batches that carried unsanitary material such as manure, toilet paper and cigarette butts.
Military officials said they did not detect any balloons floating in the air as of 8:30am.
South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts hours earlier in response to the North sending more than 1,000 rubbish-carrying balloons in recent weeks.
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SOURCE: www.aljazeera.com
RELATED: South Korea says North Korea is installing its own loudspeakers along the border
South Korea announced Sunday it would resume anti-North Korean propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas in retaliation to the North sending over 1,000 balloons filled with trash and manure over the last couple of weeks.
Published June 10, 2024
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military on Monday said it’s detecting signs that North Korea is installing its own loudspeakers along their heavily armed border, a day after the South blared anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts over its speakers for the first time in years as the rivals engage in a Cold War-style psychological warfare.
The South’s resumption of its loudspeaker broadcasts on Sunday was in retaliation for the North sending over 1,000 balloons filled with trash and manure over the last couple of weeks. North Korea has described its balloon campaign as a response to South Korean civilian groups using balloons to fly anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border. Pyongyang has long condemned such activities as it’s extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of leader Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian rule.
The tit-for-tat over speakers and balloons has deepened tensions between the Koreas as talks over the North’s nuclear ambitions remain stalled.
In their latest nuclear planning talks in Seoul, U.S. and South Korean officials reviewed an undisclosed guideline mapping out their nuclear deterrence strategies to counter growing North Korean threats. They also discussed strengthening the allies’ combined military training involving strategic U.S. assets, the participants said in a news conference.
