North Korean Waste Balloons Collide with South Korean Presidential Building

Security officials in Seoul reported that waste balloons sent by North Korea collided with the South Korean presidential building on Wednesday, prompting Seoul to deploy chemical response teams in and around the building. The South Korean leader's office in downtown Seoul is protected by dozens of soldiers and a no-fly zone, and this is the first time one of the balloons sent by North Korea has directly hit this building. Since May, Pyongyang has sent thousands of balloons containing waste and feces into South Korean skies. In response to the North Korean waste balloons, South Korea has resumed broadcasting 'full-scale' propaganda via loudspeakers towards the North. The South Korean presidential security agency told AFP that a 'chemical, biological, and radiological response team has safely collected the waste balloons.' After examining the waste, results confirmed that there is no danger or contamination in these shipments. This is the tenth time this year that North Korea has sent such balloons across the border. North Korea, which is highly sensitive to any foreign attempts to 'weaken' Kim Jong-un's regime, has sent hundreds of waste balloons, including manure, cigarette butts, scrap batteries, and shards of glass into South Korean skies in recent months. Some balloons reportedly contained feces as well. Kim Yo-jong, sister of the North Korean leader and believed to hold significant power in the country's governance, called the sending of waste balloons a 'retaliation' against previous actions against her country and warned of its continuation. Technically, the two Koreas are still at war as the 1950–1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Propaganda-tactical actions on the border date back to this three-year conflict, and Pyongyang had previously threatened Seoul's loudspeaker units with artillery attacks.