June 21st 2024.
Seoul: The capital city of South Korea was shaken by a bold statement made by the influential sister of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un. In her message, she hinted at the possibility of launching more trash-carrying balloons into South Korea. The reason behind her strong words was the recent incident where she claimed that "human scum" had sent dirty wastepaper and other undesirable items into North Korea through these balloons.
Reports from Yonhap news agency stated that on Thursday night, a group of North Korean defectors had released 20 balloons carrying over 300,000 leaflets, US dollars, and even USB sticks containing popular K-dramas and songs across the border in the city of Paju. This was just the latest in a series of back-and-forth leaflet campaigns between the two neighboring countries.
One of the leaders of this anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaign, North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, has vowed to continue sending these propaganda materials until Kim Jong-un issues an apology for their own actions of sending trash-carrying balloons to the South. In response to this, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister, stated that it was only natural for something troublesome to happen when the South did not heed their warnings and continued with their actions.
The North Korean leader's sister made this statement through the official Korean Central News Agency, which is an indication that they are planning to retaliate by launching more trash-carrying balloons into South Korea. This has been a common tactic used by North Korea, as they had previously sent over 1,000 balloons towards the South in the past few weeks as a form of retaliation against the leaflet campaigns.
In response to this tension, South Korea had resumed loudspeaker broadcasts on June 9 after six years of silence. However, they did not continue with the broadcasts the next day, possibly to prevent the situation from escalating further. The use of loudspeakers was a way to spread propaganda and information to the North Korean citizens, in hopes of encouraging them to rise up against the Kim family regime.
This back-and-forth between the two countries through balloons and loudspeakers has been ongoing for years. North Korean defectors and conservative activists in the South have been sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North, believing that it could help bring change in the country. However, the North Korean government has always been displeased with these campaigns, fearing that the influx of outside information could pose a threat to their leader's regime.
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