NO MORE TRASH. A cleaner takes away bags of trash carried airborne by North Korean balloons in a parking lot outside a shopping mall in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, on June 2, 2024. Pyongyang said it would temporarily halt sending trash-filled balloons to Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL – North Korea said Sunday it will temporarily stop sending trash-filled balloons across the border to South Korea.
However, it threatened to resume such operations should Seoul send more anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il claimed Pyongyang had sent 3,500 balloons, carrying 15 tons worth of debris, toward South Korea between Tuesday night and Sunday morning.
Kim offered to temporarily halt that activity because it was solely in response to anti-communist leaflets flown up north by South Korean activists.
Kim added that should South Korea send such leaflets again, North Korea would retaliate with balloons carrying "garbage amounting to 100 times" the quantity of those propaganda pieces of paper. (Yonhap)
