North Korea sends 600 more waste-filled balloons to the South

South Korean officials report that over 600 balloons filled with cigarette butts, paper, and scraps of cloth have been delivered floating into the country. “North Korea has resumed launching waste balloons towards South Korea” since around 8pm on Saturday, Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said. The balloons were seen floating across and landing on South Korea’s northern provinces, including the capital Seoul. 

Since last week, these waste-filled balloons have been sent across the border in the hundreds, some of which have been carrying excrement. However, initial investigations by the South Korean military show that the balloons do not carry any harmful substances. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s powerful sister had confirmed on Wednesday that these balloons were deployed by North Korea, in response to leafleting campaigns by South Korean activists. Shin Won-sik, South Korean Defence Minister, calls the action “unimaginably petty and low-grade behavior”, warning Pyongyand with strong interactions if they don’t put a stop to these “irrational” provocations. Those in North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces, and some parts of Seoul, were issued emergency alerts, and urged to inform authorities and not come in immediate contact with the balloons. 

According to experts, these campaigns by North Korea are meant to stoke divisions in the region over South Korea’s conservative government’s hardline border policies.

The Debris Balloon Strategy

These waste-filled floating balloons are an old-fashioned cold-war strategy that hasn’t been used in years. The two sides would send flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the borders, and was one of the most common types of psychological warfare at the time. Although the two sides have agreed to put a stop to these actions, they sometimes resumed them when tensions arose. 

These leafleting campaigns have begun in response to one launched by activist Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector, while standing trial for past leafleting under a new law that criminalizes such actions. The law was launched in May 2021, and carries imprisonment for upto 3 years for anti-Pyongyang leafleters. Critics however, argue that the law tampers with freedom of speech in an effort to improve ties with the North.  

However, despite South Korean suspicions, there have been no leaflets found in these balloons. 

What are North Korea’s Motives?

North Korea’s launching of these balloons are part of a series of provocative actions against the South, including its failed launching of a spy-satellite and test firings of suspected 10 short-range missiles this week. Kim Taewoo, a former president of South Korea’s government funded institute for National Unification says: “The balloon launches aren’t weak action at all. It’s like North Korea sending a message that next time, it can send balloons carrying powder forms of biological and chemical weapons.” 

Others perceive these campaigns as a response primarily against the leafleting by South Korean activists. “The point is to make the South Korean people uncomfortable, and build a public voice that the government’s policy toward North Korea is wrong,” says Koh Yu-hwan, a retired professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University. 

North Korea finds itself extremely sensitive to leafleting campaigns, as it carries information of the outside world and criticism of the Kim dynasty. However, as the rest of the world is keen on obtaining any sort of fragmentary information that it can from the secretive country, there isn’t much that can be known from this ongoing campaign. 

Although these recent actions by North Korea may deepen South Korean calls to halt anti-Pyongyang leafleting that could lead to unnecessary clashes, it is unlikely that activist groups would refrain from the same. According to experts, immediate military escalation is not possible, but the events may add to pre-existing tensions between the nations.