Over the past two days, North Korea has launched over 200 trash balloons towards the South. In response, the South Korean military resumed broadcasting through loudspeakers to North Korea for the first time in 39 days. The military significantly increased the operating hours of the loudspeakers to exert intense pressure on North Korea.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) informed the press corps via text message today, issuing a stern warning against North Korea’s continuous provocations.
According to the JCS, North Korea sent trash balloons toward South Korea from around 5 p.m. the previous day until dawn, with around 40 landing in the northern part of Gyeonggi Province. The balloons were mostly filled with paper waste. So far, no harmful substances have been found.
This is the eighth time this year that North Korea has launched trash balloons in response to South Korean defector groups sending propaganda leaflets into the North. Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Department Director of the North Korean Workers’ Party, warned twice on July 14 and 16 that they must be prepared for a terrible price. North Korea has sent over 2,000 trash balloons to the South seven times this year. The most recent scattering occurred 22 days after the previous one, on June 26.
In response to North Korea’s provocations, the South Korean military conducted broadcasts towards North Korea using loudspeakers, a psychological warfare tool, from around 6 p.m. the previous day until 4 or 5 a.m. This is the first time in 39 days since June 9. Unlike the previous 2-hour broadcast, this time,e it lasted for 10 hours, increasing the duration fivefold. Both mobile and fixed loudspeakers were used in this broadcast, which included content informing North Korean residents about the realities of the Kim Jong Un regime. The military authorities seemed to respond proportionally to North Korea’s provocations by preparing to operate the loudspeaker broadcasts as soon as they identified the scattering of trash balloons by North Korea. A military official warned, “Despite repeated warnings, North Korea’s trash balloon launches continue, so the loudspeaker broadcasts were conducted based on strategic and operational considerations. Future responses by our military will entirely depend on North Korea’s actions.”
North Korea’s provocations are increasing the risk factor with heavy rain in the central part of the Korean Peninsula. The military authorities are also monitoring the possibility of mines laid by North Korea in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) being dislodged and flowing into the South. According to the Ministry of National Defense, North Korean military mine-laying activities have been detected in some areas within the DMZ from the North since last April, and the number of mines laid so far is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
The JCS asked the people to “be careful of falling objects, and if you find a fallen balloon, do not touch it and report it to the nearest military unit or police station.”
North Korea is extremely sensitive to broadcasts towards North Korea through loudspeakers. The military openly discusses the problems of the Kim Jong Un regime through the broadcasts. North Korea sees this as an attempt to threaten the government and has no choice but to respond.
In June, KBS introduced the content of the broadcasts that the military had sent to North Korea in 2015. The content explains why North Koreans’ blood boils when they hear the loudspeaker broadcasts.
“For three generations, North Korean residents have been turned into mentally enslaved people. The unprecedented hereditary dictatorship, where someone becomes a leader simply because they are the leader’s son, is parasitic and the enemy of the people. Therefore, we do not recognize the Kim Jong Un regime. All the problems that North Korea is grappling with today, which the international community is concerned about, such as human rights abuses, nuclear missile development, terrorism, kidnapping, drugs, counterfeit dollars, and slave labor of overseas workers, are all related to the dictatorship of the Kim Jong Un hereditary regime.”
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