When a North Korean defected to South Korea and proceeded to send balloons full of pamphlets, candy, American dollars and USB drives back to the North, the North responded with trash balloons, the South responded with border blasts of K-Pop. And so it goes.. . . .
AP: South Korea on Sunday resumed anti-North Korean propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas in retaliation for the North sending over another barrage of balloons filled with trash and manure.
The BBC notes that since the end of May, “Mounds of wastepaper and filth were scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK. North Korea’s vice-minister of defense Kim Kang Il said in a statement to state media that “ROK will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them.” Republic of Korea or ROK is the official name of South Korea while the North is called DPRK or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The resumption of loudspeakers is certain to anger North Korea and could trigger retaliatory military steps, AP reports. In fact, South Korea’s military said it detected North Korea launching what appeared to be more trash-carrying balloons toward the South starting Sunday night. The military did not immediately confirm the number of suspected balloons or whether any of them had already landed in the South.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the military conducted a loudspeaker broadcast Sunday afternoon. It didn’t specify the border area where it took place or what was played over the speakers. “Whether our military conducts an additional loudspeaker broadcast is entirely dependent on North Korea’s behavior,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. AP