Pyongyang has been sending balloons carrying wastepaper and other garbage, including human feces, to South Korea since May this year in retaliation against South Korean activist groups, mostly consisting of defectors, sending propaganda leaflets to the North.
Thousands of North Korean balloons have been sent on about ten separate occasions, with most of them landing in areas south of Seoul, but this was the first time they arrived inside the tightly-secured area of the presidential office.
"We have identified garbage debris that was dropped inside the premises while monitoring the movement of balloons in coordination with the JCS," said a military official. "No hazardous material was found," he added.
According to the JCS, the South Korean government is sticking to the policy of retrieving the garbage balloons after they land because intercepting and destroying them in mid-air would cause more damage by scattering the debris everywhere.
In a tit-for-tat action against the North's bizarre campaign of sending trash-filled balloons, the South Korea has recently resumed propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers across the border. The psychological warfare had been halted amid a thaw in inter-Korean relations in 2004. The broadcasts run for 16 hours, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
reporter
Park Sae-jin, Im Yoon-seo
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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