Rubbish dropped by balloon on South Korea’s presidential compound

Rubbish from at least one North Korean balloon fell on the South Korean presidential compound on Wednesday.

The rubbish that fell on the ground at the compound in central Seoul contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt, South Korea’s presidential security service said in a statement.

North Korea’s latest balloon launches came days after South Korea boosted its frontline broadcasts of K-pop songs and propaganda messages across the rivals’ heavily armed border.

Their tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns are inflaming tensions, with the rivals threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences.

Seoul officials earlier said North Korea had used the direction of winds to fly balloons toward South Korea, but some of the past balloons had timers that were likely meant to pop the bags of trash in mid-air.

The security service gave no further details about the rubbish found at the presidential compound, like whether balloons were discovered along with the trash.

If North Korea is found to have used timers or any other device to deliberately dump trash on key South Korean facilities like the presidential office, it would certainly invite a strong response from South Korea, observers say.

The security service refused to disclose whether President Yoon Suk Yeol was at the office at that time. Mr Yoon’s office earlier said he has no official schedule on Wednesday.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier Wednesday that North Korean balloons were flying north of Seoul after crossing the border and had urged people to be alert for falling objects.

It was North Korea’s 10th such launch since late May. More than 2,000 huge balloons so far have dropped wastepaper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure on South Korea.

North Korea has said it was responding to South Korean activists scattering political leaflets across the border via their own balloons.

Experts say North Korea considers South Korean civilian leafleting activities a major threat to its efforts to stop the inflow of foreign news and maintain its authoritarian rule.

In furious responses to past South Korean leafletting, North Korea destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in its territory in 2020 and fired at incoming balloons in 2014.

South Korea said on Sunday it was ramping up its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts from its loudspeakers at all major sites along the land border because North Korea was continuing launches of trash-carrying balloons.

On Thursday, the South restarted its loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in about 40 days in retaliation for North Korea’s previous balloon activities.