Trash carried over the border by a North Korean balloon is seen in this undated photo taken in Seoul, South Korea. (South Korean Ministry of National Defense)
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — The multinational command tasked with enforcing the armistice agreement between North and South Korea is investigating hundreds of filth-carrying balloons Pyongyang sent across the Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday.
Roughly 260 balloons with plastic bags tethered to them have been discovered this week in provinces across the peninsula, the South Korean military said in a statement Wednesday. Some contained manure.
The bags also held cigarette butts, batteries, used clothes and other household trash, Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Col. Lee Sung-jun told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
North Korean balloons with bags tethered to them are seen in this undated photo taken in South Chungcheong province, South Korea. (South Korean Ministry of National Defense)
U.N. Command — composed of 22 member states and led by Army Gen. Paul LaCamera out of Camp Humphreys — announced late Wednesday it has launched a formal investigation in the matter.
“The military action of deploying mass numbers of balloons with substances (e.g. fecal matter and other contaminants) that can cause harm to local populations is not only offensive and unsanitary but constitutes a violation of the armistice agreement,” the statement said.
The Neutral Nations Supervisory Committee will observe the investigation to provide third-party oversight, the command said.
“We condemn any violations of international law that disrupt efforts to preserve peace on the Korean Peninsula, and we encourage [North Korea] to return to dialogue to deliberate these matters and other issues that present potential sources of conflict or tension,” a U.N. Command spokesperson, Army Maj. Mayra Nañez, said in the statement.
The command’s purpose is to uphold the armistice agreement between the two Koreas and to investigate suspected violations. In one such probe last year, it concluded that both sides violated the agreement by flying drones into each other’s airspaces on Dec. 26, 2022.
South Korean firefighters and explosive ordnance disposal teams were dispatched to investigate the balloons, some of which may have landed on homes, airports, highways and vehicles, the South’s military said in a news release Wednesday.
None of the balloons were in the air as of Thursday, Lee, the Joint Chief’s spokesman, told reporters at the news conference. He described Pyongyang’s campaign as a “petty act.”
Tuesday’s incident comes two days after North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il warned of “tit-for-tat action” in response to balloons sent north of the border by South Korean human rights activists, according to a statement published Sunday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
South Korean activists and North Korean defectors living in the South regularly send balloons carrying food, money and household essentials to the North.
“Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border …,” Kim said.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior ruling party official, mocked the South in a KCNA statement Wednesday, calling the balloons a form of “freedom of expression.”
