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North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched hundreds of balloons carrying rubbish and excrement at South Korea in one of its most unusual provocations in years, causing the South Korean military to deploy chemical and explosive response teams to gather objects and waste around the country.
State media reported Wednesday that the balloon campaign occurred as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his military scientists to overcome a failed satellite launch and continue developing space-based reconnaissance capabilities, which he described as critical for countering US and South Korean military activities.
In his first public comments regarding the launch failure, Kim also threatened South Korea with unspecified “overwhelming actions” following an exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border hours before North Korea’s failed launch on Monday. In a speech Tuesday, Kim labeled South Korea’s response as a “hysterical attack formation flight and strike drill” and a “direct military challenge” to North Korea, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea | AP news Image
North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea has been floating a huge number of trash-carrying balloons toward the South since Tuesday night in retribution for South Korean activists who flew anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets over the border.
The South Korean military reported that over 260 North Korean balloons had been discovered in various regions of the country as of Wednesday afternoon and were being recovered by military fast reaction and explosive clearance teams. According to the military, the balloons carried various forms of rubbish and manure, but no human waste had been discovered thus far. It warned residents not to touch North Korean objects and to report them to the military or police if discovered.
In a statement issued over the weekend, North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il stated that the North planned to scatter “mounds of wastepaper and filth” over border areas and other parts of South Korea in a “tit-for-tat” response to South Korean activists’ leafleting.
Later Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, used state media to mock a South Korean military statement asking that the North cease its “inhumane and vulgar activity.” She claimed the North was expressing its freedom of expression, which the Seoul administration has cited as the reason for its inability to prevent anti-North Korean activists from flying leaflets across the border.
“Once you experience how nasty and exhausting it feels to go around picking up dirty filth, you will realize that you shouldn’t talk about freedom of expression so easily when it comes to (leafletting) in border areas,” she stated. “We will make it clear that we will respond with tens more times the amount of filth to what the (South Koreans) spray to us in the future.”
The South Korean military released photos showing rubbish littered across highways and roads throughout the country. In Seoul, military officials discovered what looked to be a timer designed to pop trash bags in flight. Two large balloons holding an unpopped plastic bag packed with dirt-like material were seen on a road in central South Chungcheong province.
There were no early indications of balloon-related damage. However, Similar North Korean balloon activities damaged autos and other property in 2016.
North Korea | AP News Image
North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions
Kim Jong Un’s remarks on the satellite came during a speech at the North’s Academy of Defense Sciences, which he attended the day after a rocket carrying what would have been his country’s second military reconnaissance satellite exploded shortly after launch. The North Korean aerospace technology agency stated that the explosion was potentially caused by the reliability of a newly built rocket engine powered by petroleum and using liquid oxygen as an oxidizer.
Animosities between the Koreas have reached their highest point in years, as the tempo of both Kim’s nuclear demonstrations and South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States and Japan has increased since 2022.
The failed satellite launch set back Kim’s plans to launch three additional military surveillance satellites in 2024, following the launch of North Korea’s first military reconnaissance satellite in November. The November launch came after two failed efforts.
South Korea, Japan, and the United States condemned Monday’s launch because the United Nations prohibits North Korea from performing such rocket launches, perceiving them as a cover for testing long-range missile technologies.
North Korea has persistently maintained that it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles in response to what it sees as US-led military threats. Kim has defined spy satellites as critical for monitoring US and South Korean military activity and increasing the threat posed by his nuclear-capable missiles.
“Although we failed to achieve the results we had hoped to get in the recent reconnaissance satellite launch, we must never feel scared or dispirited but make still greater efforts,” Kim stated. “It is natural that one learns more and makes greater progress after experiencing failure.”
North Korea | AP News Image
North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions
According to some South Korean experts, mentioning a liquid oxygen-petroleum rocket engine in state media signals that the North is developing a more powerful space launch vehicle capable of handling greater payloads.
It is thought that North Korea’s prior space rockets used unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide as an oxidizer. Chang Young-keun, a missile researcher at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy, believes the country’s rapid transformation in space rocket designs may suggest external technological assistance, most likely from Russia.
Kim has increased the exposure of his connections with Russia in recent months, including a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September, as they converge in the face of their conflicts with Washington. Kim’s meeting with Putin took place at a spaceport in the Russian Far East following North Korea’s repeated failures to launch its first spy satellite. Putin then told Russian media that Moscow was eager to assist North Korea in the development of satellites.
The United States and South Korea have also accused North Korea of helping Russia with artillery shells, missiles, and other military equipment to prolong the conflict in Ukraine.
SOURCE – (AP)
