[News Today] TRASH BALLOONS SENT FOR 5TH DAY

[LEAD]
Seems like there's no end to this. North Korea has resumed sending trash balloons over to the south, marking five consecutive days for the first time. This action seems to be in response to the anti-North Korean leaflets entering the country.

[REPORT]
A large balloon is in a stream near a residential area.

North Korea's trash balloons haven't been seen since August 10th, but they have reappeared for five straight days from September 4th.

Out of some 1,250 balloons, 430 landed in the South.

North Korea has sent trash-filled balloons on 17 occasions since late May. But this is the first time that the balloons were flown for five days in a row.

The regime appears to have resumed its retaliation against anti-North Korean leaflets sent by civilian and defectors' groups in South Korea.

The groups publicly stopped sending the leaflets after the government defined the launch of an object over two kilograms as a violation of the aviation safety law.

However, some groups reportedly sent leaflets in secret.

Yang Moo-jin/ President, University of N. Korean Studies
North Korea is likely to respond to the leaflets by sending balloons whenever wind conditions are favorable.

The North's goal may be that the more damage caused by the balloons, the more public opinion in the South will be that civic groups should be curbed from dropping anti-regime leaflets in the North.

The balloons have caused damage of over 100 million won, or roughly 75,000 U.S. dollars, in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province as of August.

Some experts think that Pyongyang may be waging a silent protest against the Yoon administration's new unification discourse which focuses on information flow into North Korea.

Hong Min/ Korea Institute for Nat'l Unification
If N. Korea responded directly, it could bring more attention to the Aug. 15 Doctrine and cause information to flow back into North Korea.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff plans to follow the existing protocol and collect the fallen balloons instead of shooting them down.

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