Today, Wednesday, balloons loaded with waste sent from North Korea reached the South Korean presidential complex in Seoul, according to security officials who deployed chemical response teams, as reported by AFP. This marks the first time the South Korean presidential office, located in central Seoul and protected by dozens of soldiers with a no-fly zone, has directly encountered one of the thousands of waste balloons launched by Pyongyang since early May as part of a propaganda war between the two countries.
The presidential security agency told AFP, "The chemical, biological, and radiological response team safely removed the waste-laden balloons." They added, "After investigation, results confirmed there was no danger or contamination." The North Korean military warned of another wave of North Korean balloons, as did the Seoul authorities on Wednesday morning. They stated, "If you find balloons on the ground, do not touch them and report to the nearest military unit or police station."
This is the tenth batch of balloons sent by North Korea towards the south this year, with Pyongyang asserting that they are in response to balloons carrying anti-regime messages sent by South Korean activists. In response, South Korea resumed "extensive" propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers along the border with the North on Sunday. Seoul also suspended a military agreement aimed at reducing tensions and resumed live-fire exercises on border islands and near the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.
The two Koreas remain technically at war as the conflict from 1950 to 1953 ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. The propaganda broadcasts have angered Pyongyang, which has previously threatened to shell Seoul's loudspeakers.
