North Korea launches over 300 trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea since Saturday
Balloons carrying garbage, presumably sent by North Korea, are seen floating on the West Sea, June 9, in this photo provided by the Seven Stars cruise ship. Yonhap
Korea restarted propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea on Sunday in response to the North's repeated sending of trash-filled balloons across the border since late last month.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it carried out the loudspeaker broadcasts in the afternoon, without providing further details, such as the exact time it was carried out and what the broadcasts were about, as it was a military operation.
It marked the first anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts near the heavily fortified border since January 2016, when the South Korean military resumed its loudspeaker campaign in retaliation for North Korea's fourth nuclear test.
The resumption of the loudspeaker broadcasts came after the presidential National Security Council (NSC) approved the measure at an emergency meeting held earlier in the day.
On Saturday, the North floated the balloons in retaliation against South Korean civic groups' recent launch of balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.
The North has flown the rubbish-carrying balloons toward the South between May 28-29, and early last week.
"Although the measures we are taking may be difficult for the North Korean regime to endure, they will deliver messages of light and hope to the North Korean military and citizens," the presidential office said in a release.
"We make it clear that the responsibility for any escalation of tension between the two Koreas will lie entirely with North Korea," it said.
South Korean soldiers collect debris from trash-carrying North Korean balloons in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, June 9. Yonhap
The JCS warned that whether there will be additional broadcasts will "depend entirely" on North Korea's actions, urging Pyongyang to immediately stop the "despicable act" of launching waste balloons.
The NSC determined that any North Korean attempts to cause public concern and confusion are "unacceptable" and agreed to take "corresponding measures" against Pyongyang's balloon campaigns.
"The government will maintain a firm and thorough state of readiness against any provocations from North Korea to ensure public safety and national security," it said.
The NSC meeting came after the JCS said it detected some 330 waste-carrying balloons launched by the North since Saturday, with more than 80 of them landing inside South Korea.
The meeting was presided over by NSC adviser Chang Ho-jin and attended by the ministers of foreign affairs, defense and unification as well as the spy agency chief, the government coordination policy chief and deputy directors of the national security office.
The North has staged the balloon campaign, which it described as a "tit-for-tat" response to anti-Pyongyang leafleting by activists in South Korea. It launched nearly 1,000 trash-carrying balloons into the South late last month and early last week.
For years, North Korean defectors in the South and conservative activists have sent leaflets to the North via balloons to help encourage North Koreans to eventually rise up against the Pyongyang regime.
North Korea has bristled at the propaganda campaign amid concern that an influx of outside information could pose a threat to its leader Kim Jong-un.
In 2014, the two Koreas exchanged machine-gun fire across the border after the North apparently tried to shoot down balloons carrying propaganda leaflets critical of North Korea.
Last week, the military conducted drills to operate the propaganda loudspeakers for the first time since 2018, the JCS said.
The Echo of Freedom exercise inspected operational procedures of the equipment to inform North Koreans of the reality of their country, South Korea's development over the years and its popular culture, the JCS said.
A JCS official said the military has completed preparations for loudspeaker operations, noting that it will broadcast "Voice of Freedom," a radio program run by the defense ministry's psychological warfare unit.
The fixed loudspeakers were dismantled following the 2018 inter-Korean tension pact and have been stored in warehouses, while the mobile units are parked by nearby military bases, according to military officials.
Fixed loudspeakers, audible up to 24 kilometers, had been installed at around 10 front-line locations, while about 40 mobile units, with a greater range, were also used.
Loudspeaker propaganda began in 1963 under former President Park Chung-hee's administration and was halted in 2004 following an inter-Korean military agreement during the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration.
In 2015, the two Koreas engaged in a brief exchange of artillery fire over the western part of their border over a propaganda loudspeaker campaign that Seoul resumed in retaliation for North Korea's land mine attack, which had maimed two South Korean soldiers. North Korea later expressed regret over the land mine attack and South Korea agreed to halt anti-Pyongyang broadcasts.
The propaganda campaign has been suspended since April 2018, when then President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to halt hostile acts along the border following their summit at the truce village of Panmunjom.
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday endorsed a motion to fully suspend the 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact, which cleared the way for resuming propaganda broadcasts near the border.
The 2018 deal included setting up buffer zones around the border to suspend large-scale military drills, as well as banning hostile acts between the two Koreas.
Tension remains high as the South Korean military vowed to resume all military activities near the Military Demarcation Line and its northwestern border islands for the first time in more than five years following the full suspension of the Comprehensive Military Agreement. (Yonhap)