Seoul says North Korea is dropping balloons filled with ‘filth and garbage’

South Korea has accused North Korea of sending more than 150 balloons carrying “filth and garbage” over the countries’ shared border, as Pyongyang retaliated against a long-standing leafleting campaign by pro-democracy activists in the South.

The South Korean armed forces alerted citizens that “suspicious objects” presumed to be from North Korea were “identified in the front-line areas” late on Tuesday night.

Seoul also released images of large white balloons carrying bags, as well as of rubbish from one of the balloons strewn over a highway in a western district of the South Korean capital. According to unverified media reports in South Korea, some of the bags contained animal faeces.

“This move by North Korea is a clear violation of international law and seriously threatens the safety of our people,” the South Korean joint chiefs of staff said in a statement. “We issue a stern warning that it must immediately stop its anti-humanitarian and low-level actions.”

The balloon launches came after North Korea’s vice-defence minister Kim Kang Il warned on Sunday that Pyongyang would respond to balloon launches by activists in the South by scattering “mounds of waste paper and filth over border areas and the interior of [South Korea]”.

Pyongyang has long denounced South Korea for allowing activists to launch balloons into the North carrying items ranging from anti-regime leaflets and electronic devices to medication and Bibles.

The practice was banned by Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s former left-wing president, but was tolerated under the country’s current conservative administration until the ban was scrapped altogether last year by South Korea’s constitutional court.

In 2022, Pyongyang blamed the balloons for a large-scale coronavirus outbreak in the country, attributing a surge in cases to “alien things coming by wind”.

Later that year, North Korea sent five unmanned aerial vehicles into South Korean airspace, with one surveillance drone breaching a special no-fly zone surrounding the South Korean president’s office and the headquarters of the country’s joint chiefs of staff.

“North Korea regards the balloons from the South as acts of psychological warfare and perhaps even as attempts to probe the effectiveness of their air defences, and so they respond in kind,” said Peter Ward, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul.

On Monday, North Korea also made its latest attempt to launch a military reconnaissance satellite into space. The attempt failed after the rocket exploded shortly after lift-off.

North Korea claimed to have successfully launched its first military spy satellite into orbit last year, and the regime’s leader, Kim Jong Un, vowed on Tuesday to press on with the programme, calling South Korea’s condemnation of this week’s launch “hysterical”.

“Failure is a requirement of success and should never become a cause to be discouraged or give up,” Kim told North Korea’s Academy of Defense Science, according to the state Rodong Sinmun newspaper.

“Despite the advances North Korea has made with its satellite programme, its technical sophistication still leaves a lot to be desired,” said Ward. “Much easier to launch a sack full of dung instead.”