South Korea will step up loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts into the North in response to Pyongyang sending balloons loaded with garbage across the border, the South's military said on Sunday.
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“Starting at 1 p.m. (4 a.m. GMT), our armed forces will carry out large-scale broadcasting operations along the border, as we have announced many times,” South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a press release on Sunday.
“The North is launching a new batch of balloons carrying waste,” the General Staff said earlier in the day, adding that they were flying toward the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul.
He added: “Please report them to the army or police and avoid direct contact with these elements.”
Pyongyang has already launched more than 2,000 balloons filled with garbage across the inter-Korean border since May, which it sees as retaliation for balloons carrying propaganda for South Korean activists.
The latest round of balloons comes three days after Seoul announced it would resume loudspeaker broadcasts of propaganda against the North Korean regime.
Seoul, announcing the start of the large-scale propaganda broadcast, warned that the North Korean military “will bear the brunt of the decisive damage caused by its actions aimed at increasing tension in the border area.”
“We strongly warn that the full responsibility lies with the North Korean regime,” he added.
More than 100 flights and about 10,000 passengers have already been affected by balloons sent by North Korea, a South Korean lawmaker said on Wednesday.
In the wake of the “balloon war,” Seoul completely suspended a military agreement aimed at reducing tensions between the two countries and warned in June that it would resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border.
North Korea, a reclusive state, seeks to deny its population access to South Korean popular culture, such as K-pop or Korean drama.
In 2022, Pyongyang executed a North Korean citizen on charges of possessing cultural content from the South.
The audio propaganda, a tactic dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War, has angered Pyongyang, which has previously threatened to target South Korean loudspeakers with artillery.
Seoul also recently resumed live-fire drills near its border with the North.
