Get prepared for a military clash

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo should be extra vigilant when the commander in chief is away.

After North Korea sent a number of balloons filled with waste and excrement across the border again, South Korea has decided to resume the suspended loudspeaker broadcasts along the tense border. The decision raises the possibility of the North resorting to military provocations along the border. The government must carefully manage the deepening security risk, starting with the residents living in the border area.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday announced that North Korea flew more than 330 filthy balloons to the South over the weekend and at least 80 of them dropped on the South. Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, said last Thursday, “We flew 10 ad balloons packed with 200,000 leaflets and USBs containing trot songs from Pocheon, Gyeonggi, to North Korea.” The civic group also sent 300,000 leaflets and USBs containing K-pop songs to the North in May.

North Korea’s mobilization of soldiers to send the dirty balloons in response to the civilian group’s voluntary act to help North Koreans know what’s going on outside deserves an international condemnation. One of the balloons weighing more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) even fell on a parked car and caused much damage.

In a National Security Council meeting on Sunday, the government decided to reinstall loudspeakers on the border in reaction to the North’s second dispatch of the balloons. In a Cabinet meeting earlier, the government threatened to reactivate loudspeakers after suspending the effectiveness of the Sept. 19 military agreement in Pyongyang six years ago. The government stopped its loudspeaker broadcasts shortly after the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration.

Once the loudspeaker broadcasts start, North Korea will likely launch a limited attack around the Military Demarcation Line or the Northern Limit Line. North Korea did fire artillery shells toward loudspeakers installed in a mountain near the 28th Infantry Division in 2015. At that time, our military launched a counterattack against the shelling.

After the North’s third dispatch of dirty balloons, our Army, Navy and Air Force were on alert on Sunday. We must prepare for any possible cross-border military provocations. Unfortunately, the commander of the First Division on the front line turned out to be having a drinking party with his subordinates on the very day when the North flew nasty balloons across the border for the second time. Such lax discipline must be punished. President Yoon Suk Yeol embarks on a state visit to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from Monday through Saturday. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo should be extra vigilant when the commander in chief is away.