A bag of trash carried by a North Korean balloon is pictured in Seoul, South Korea, June, 1, 2024. (South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff)
SEOUL, South Korea — Debris discovered Sunday near a school on Osan Air Base may have come from one of about 720 balloons North Korea floated across the border over the weekend.
The debris found near Osan Elementary School was cleaned up after an explosive ordnance team set up a cordon, principal Allyse Struhs said in a 6:15 p.m. email to parents and guardians.
“Please be assured that we anticipate no threats or school delays to our students on Monday,” she wrote.
Further details were not available, but the incident is under investigation, Capt. Michelle Chang, a spokeswoman for Osan’s 51st Fighter Wing, told Stars and Stripes by phone.
Hundreds of balloons carrying trash from North Korea have been discovered in several South Korean provinces since late Saturday, prompting Seoul to issue a second mass-alert warning in a week.
The South’s government sent the latest alert to cellphones around 9 p.m. Saturday, warning people to watch out for falling objects. Those who see a balloon were advised to avoid contact with the object and report it to police or the nearest military unit.
Some balloons were discovered around 8 p.m. Saturday, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a news release the next morning. Tethered to the balloons were bags of scrap paper, cigarette butts and other household trash.
The South Korean military and local police have been dispatched to collect the balloons; no harmful substances were immediately detected in the bags, the Joint Chiefs said.
The government issued a similar alert Tuesday after 260 balloons were discovered floating throughout South Korea. Some carried manure, according to the South Korean military.
North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il warned last week that “mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border,” according to a state-run Korean Central News Agency report on May 26.
The North Korean balloons are a response to balloons sent north of the border by South Korean human rights activists, the KCNA report said. The activists regularly send balloons carrying food and money in hopes they’ll reach struggling North Koreans.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the balloons are a form of “freedom of expression” and warned that more could be on South Korea’s horizon, according to a KCNA report on Wednesday.
U.N. Command, the multinational body responsible for upholding the armistice agreement between North and South, began investigating the balloons last week.
“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 command said in a statement Wednesday.
South Korean troops inspect trash carried by a North Korean balloon to Seoul, South Korea, June 1, 2024. (South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff)
Trash carried by a North Korean balloon is pictured in Seoul, South Korea, June, 1, 2024. (South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff)
