Osan Elementary School, about 30 miles south of Seoul, South Korea, is pictured the day after a balloon carrying trash from North Korea fell on the grounds, June 2, 2024. (Luis Garcia/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — The U.S. military confirmed Monday that debris found near an on-base school the previous day had been carried by balloon from North Korea.
The inflatable came down Sunday on Osan Air Base, near Osan Elementary School, according to principal Allyse Struhs’ email to parents and guardians that evening.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman David Kim said in a statement Monday that at least one North Korean balloon was found at Osan, home of 7th Air Force and the 51st Fighter Wing about 30 miles south of Seoul.
“The debris primarily consisted of basketball-size black plastic bags filled with trash and cloth, which were deemed safe with no threat to the public after investigation,” he wrote.
The site was “thoroughly swept” and the debris was “disposed of safely and appropriately,” according to Kim’s statement, which provided no further details nor mentioned Osan Elementary School as the site where the balloon came down.
Struhs’ email to parents said an explosive ordnance team had set up a cordon to clean up the debris. Parents were told that “no threats or school delays” were anticipated Monday.
Roughly 980 North Korean balloons landed throughout the South starting May 28, some of them reaching as far south as South Gyeongsang province, roughly 170 miles below the border.
Around 720 balloons from a Saturday evening barrage were discovered in South Korea, according to the country’s military.
No injuries were reported from the descending balloons; however, at least one landed on a car’s windshield in Ansan, about 20 miles south of the capital city, according to local media reports.
The balloons appear to be more of a “military nuisance” rather than a specific threat due to their broad landing sites, Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.
“These balloons cannot pinpoint the landing zone so if they landed on USFK bases, it’s through luck,” he said.
Yang added that North Korea has already demonstrated its ballistic missile capabilities and that “a balloon is not the answer” if the country attacked U.S. troops stationed in the South.
