South Korea's Response to North Korean Trash Balloons with 'K-Pop' and Dollars

As tensions rise over North Korea sending balloons filled with feces and trash to South Korea, a group of activists in South Korea launched balloons containing music from popular young singers and dollars towards North Korea. This group of activists announced on Thursday, June 7, that they had sent large balloons filled with dollars, K-Pop music flash drives, and critical statements about Kim Jong-un towards the North Korean border. The Pyongyang government has threatened to send more trash balloons in response to this action. The balloon war continues. A civilian activist group in South Korea, led by Park Sang-hak, a defector from North Korea, explained on Thursday that they had launched 10 balloons from a border town into the skies over North Korea. Park's group, named the 'North Korean Freedom Fighters,' mainly consists of individuals who were North Korean citizens and have fled their homeland. In a statement, Park's group wrote: 'We sent truth and love, medicine, one-dollar bills, and songs, but Kim Jong-un the 'wild' sent us 'filth and trash' and did not even apologize.' North Korea, which is very sensitive to any foreign attempts to 'weaken' the regime led by Kim Jong-un, has recently sent hundreds of trash balloons, including manure, cigarette butts, waste batteries, and shards of glass into South Korean skies. Some balloons reportedly contained feces as well. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the North Korean leader, who is believed to hold significant power in the country's governance, referred to the sending of trash balloons as 'retaliation' against previous actions against her country and warned against further actions. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol stated in a speech in Seoul on Thursday that North Korea has recently committed 'disgusting provocative actions that any normal country would be ashamed of.' He added that Seoul will never ignore North Korea's threats, will maintain full readiness, and will respond 'decisively' to any provocation. Park's activist group intensified its anti-North Korea propaganda after the South Korean Constitutional Court annulled a law last year that criminalized such actions as 'violating freedom of expression.' Seoul officials now say that South Korean citizens do not face legal restrictions for launching balloons towards North Korea. However, following North Korea's action of sending trash balloons, South Korea suspended a de-escalation agreement reached six years ago. The suspension of the de-escalation agreement has allowed South Korea to resume exercises and deploy loudspeakers in border areas to broadcast propaganda. North Korea has threatened to destroy the propaganda loudspeakers with artillery fire. However, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, following Seoul's warning about the consequences of 'intolerable' actions by North Korea, Pyongyang agreed earlier this week to halt the balloon war. Meanwhile, on June 6, the United States flew a B-1B long-range bomber over the Korean Peninsula, which experts in East Asia viewed as a show of force and solidarity with South Korea. The number of these American long-range bombers, which arrived in the region alongside advanced fighter jets from the U.S., has now increased to two. This was the first such action in seven years, which the South Korean Ministry of Defense described as a sign of 'America's security commitment' and 'strengthening the defensive posture of allies.' The ministry in Seoul added that South Korean fighter jets also conducted new exercises to prepare for any potential new movements from Pyongyang. North Korea, whose leader engaged in negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement during Donald Trump's presidency, has accelerated and expanded its nuclear weapons arsenal testing over the past two years. According to the Associated Press, this North Korean action is an attempt to gain more concessions in the event of resumed negotiations with the U.S., contacts that have been stagnant for the past five years.