This file photo, taken June 10, 2024, shows a trash-carrying balloon sent by North Korea in a rice paddy in Incheon, just west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
North Korea again launched balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on Wednesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, marking a resumption of its trash-balloon campaign after a near monthlong halt.
The JCS said an unspecified number of balloons could travel to northern Gyeonggi Province, just north of Seoul, and advised the public not to touch fallen balloons and report them to the military or police.
Since late May, the North has launched thousands of balloons carrying trash in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea. Pyongyang last launched such balloons on Aug. 10.
In response to the North's campaign, South Korea's military began blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts daily through loudspeakers on the border in July.
North Korea has bristled against the anti-Pyongyang leaflet and loudspeaker campaigns on fears that an influx of outside information could pose a threat to the Kim Jong-un regime.
Though North Korea had yet to state its intent behind the latest launching of balloons, it was likely in response to anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
"I believe civic groups have been quietly sending leaflets recently," an official with Seoul's unification ministry said.
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