N. Korea sends again trash-carrying balloons into S. Korea
North Korea again launched hundreds of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea on Wednesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, with some pieces of garbage landing on the presidential office compound in Seoul, Yonhap reported.
The launch, which marked the second of its kind this week, came as the South Korean military blared anti-Pyongyang broadcasts in full-scale through its border loudspeakers for the fourth day in response to the North's continued launches.
Earlier in the day, the Presidential Security Service discovered fallen trash on the grounds of the complex in central Seoul, as North Korea sent more balloons carrying pieces of scrap paper and other trash.
An analysis of the fallen objects showed they did not present a danger. But the military has refrained from shooting down the balloons out of concern their contents could spread further and cause more damage.
The JCS said it has detected around 300 balloons as of 4 p.m., with the number expected to rise as additional balloons are floating in midair.
Some 250 balloons have fallen mostly in Seoul and the northern area of nearby Gyeonggi Province, the JCS said.
North Korea has launched more than 3,000 trash-carrying balloons since late May, including some 500 such balloons Sunday, in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors and activists in the South.
In response, South Korea has resumed full-scale propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North.
Since Sunday, the military has been conducting daily loudspeaker broadcasts on all the fronts across the roughly 250 kilometer-long inter-Korean border.