In an eccentric act of retaliation, North Korea has unleashed hundreds of large balloons filled with feces, trash, and other filthy objects across the border into South Korea over the last couple days.
The South Korean military reported recovering around 260 of the trash-laden balloons as of Wednesday afternoon after they floated in from North Korean territory. Photos showed highways and roads littered with scattered manure, garbage, dirt, and even deflated balloons filled with unidentified clumpy substances.
“We will make it clear that we will respond with tens more times the amount of filth to what the (South Koreans) spray to us in the future,” Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in a statement.
Her statement referenced the poop-filled balloon barrage by Pyongyang as tit-for-tat retaliation against South Korean activists who routinely sending anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border.
South Korea’s military advised civilians not to touch or go near any of the objects dropped by the North Korean balloons due to safety concerns. Bomb disposal units and hazmat teams were deployed to recover the trash.
The feces-filled balloon attack marks a new low in the leafletting feuds that have persisted for years.
It also injects another layer of tensions into the broader security crisis on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang test-fired another intercontinental ballistic missile just hours before unleashing the trash balloons.
The diplomatic tension has increased anxieties in Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington that North Korea may soon conduct its first nuclear test explosion since 2017 as Kim Jong Un openly prioritizes expanding his nuclear deterrent.
South Korean authorities will now have the unenviable task of cleaning up the mess left scattered across roads and towns – a visible reminder of the literal “filth” North Korea is willing to unleash in its escalating efforts to gain leverage over Seoul and Washington.