North Korea's trash balloons land on South's presidential compound

North Korea's trash-filled balloons landed on the premises of South Korea's presidential office compound in central Seoul on Wednesday morning, the Presidential Security Service said. This launch marked tenth trash-laden balloon launch this year.

A balloon carrying trash from North Korea, circled in red, descends on the compound of the South Korean presidential office in Yongsan in central Seoul on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

North Korea's trash-filled balloons landed on the premises of South Korea's presidential office compound in central Seoul on Wednesday morning, the Presidential Security Service (PSS) said.

Wednesday’s launch marked Pyongyang's tenth trash-laden balloon launch this year and came three days after its ninth balloon launch Sunday.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Pyongyang launched balloons containing waste such as paper from around 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. on Wednesday, with a northwesterly wind at an altitude of two kilometers (6,561 feet) carrying the flying objects to Seoul.

Some balloons were discovered and collected on the compounds of the South's Ministry of National Defense and presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

A presidential official said the balloons flying toward the Yongsan area “have been and will be precisely monitored in real-time through detecting devices.”

The official added that the office acknowledged the seriousness of the balloon landing at the presidential compound. The authorities conducted safety measures after the balloon landings.

The PSS said it cooperated with the JCS to identify trash on the ground in the Yongsan presidential office compound.

“Military experts dealing with chemical, biological and radiological threats found no hazardous materials,” the PSS said in a statement.

Police control a site where North Korean trash-laden balloons fell in Dongjak District, eastern Seoul, on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Waste-loaded balloons launched on Wednesday morning were found or observed in multiple districts across Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon.

In the capital, they landed in the districts of Dobong, Yeongdeungpo, Jung, Yongsan, Dongjak and others. More than 80 sightings and discovery reports were filed with Gyeonggi’s fire authorities and four with Incheon’s fire services.

South Korea’s military has maintained a policy of disposing of the balloons after they land rather than shooting them down, which could yield more damage by dispersing materials across a wider area.

In response to the North’s balloon launches, the South’s military has conducted a full-scale loudspeaker broadcast campaign along the inter-Korean border since Sunday, after the North's ninth balloon launch. The South’s military conducted a partial loudspeaker campaign between last Thursday and Sunday.

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik speaks during a military meeting for commanders in July in central Seoul. [MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE]

On the same day, Seoul’s Defense Minister Shin Won-sik also warned about Pyongyang potentially firing bullets at or shelling areas where North Korean defectors’ groups float border-crossing balloons with anti-regime leaflets.

In an interview published Wednesday by the Yomiuri Shimbun, a leading Japanese newspaper, Shin said that Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warned in a July 16 statement of potential changes in the North's strategies and counteractions to anti-regime materials sent from South Korean territory.

Shin said Seoul’s military keeps a keen eye on the North’s moves because there is a possibility that Pyongyang could opt to provoke Seoul by firing shells at anti-regime balloon launch sites, burying land mines, distributing anti-South leaflets using unmanned aircraft, jamming GPS signals or undertaking cyberattacks.

In a statement carried by North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency on July 16, Kim Yo-jong said Pyongyang's counteraction would be “inevitably changed” if Seoul continues its “crude and dirty play” against Pyongyang.

The Japanese newspaper reported that the interview with Defense Minister Shin took place in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday.

Officials from Korea Peace Action, a coalition of civic and religious groups, hold a press conference in front of the presidential office in central Seoul to demand the government stop anti-North broadcasts in inter-Korean border regions on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

On Wednesday, civic groups urged the South Korean government to halt loudspeaker operations, arguing that they risked escalating inter-Korean tension.

In a press conference held in front of the presidential office, Korea Peace Action, representing 607 civic and religious groups, condemned the military’s decision to operate an anti-North loudspeaker broadcast at full scale, warning they could "increase the possibility of an inter-Korean clash in border regions.”

The group said the airing of such broadcasts is an overreaction that justifies other kinds of military actions from North Korea, dismissing the government’s argument that the loudspeaker campaign is a reaction to the trash-filled balloons from Pyongyang.

Lee Tae-ho, head of the steering committee at Korea Peace Action, delivered his concerns over potential and unexpected confrontations prompted by the broadcasts because the “rules of military engagement have become unclear since the inter-Korean military accord turned powerless.”

The activists also decided to send complaints to Shin and President Yoon Suk Yeol on the same day.

Military officers dispose of a trash-filled balloon that landed in front of the National Assembly Library in Yeouido, western Seoul on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]