North Korea launched a new wave of “trash balloons” toward its southern neighbors on Wednesday night, local media reported.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that North Korea launched more than 160 balloons carrying garbage across its southern border.
The report cited South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which said it discovered dozens of “garbage packages” containing paper, plastic bottles and other household waste in parts of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital Seoul.
Earlier this month, the JCS said it had detected around 420 balloons that North Korea had allegedly launched toward South Korea.
The garbage package is the latest standoff between the two Koreas, which have been resorting to Cold War-style tactics since earlier this year, with the North sending thousands of balloons toward the South filled with waste paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure.
North Korea says the balloons are retaliation against South Korean civil activists who launch anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border.
In July, at least one North Korean balloon carried debris that fell on South Korea’s presidential complex, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key South Korean facilities. Officials said the balloon contained no hazardous materials and no one was hurt.
South Korea has responded by using front-line loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda messages and K-pop songs toward the North.
The back-and-forth tactics are escalating tensions fueled by North Korea’s growing nuclear ambitions and South Korea’s expanding joint military exercises with the United States.
