North Korea has warned its southern neighbour of an escalation in balloon use as a retaliatory measure against South Korean loudspeaker broadcasts. The warning was issued by Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the hermit kingdom’s dictator Kim Jong Un. South Korean activists have also been sending balloons carrying items such as pen drives containing anti-Kim propaganda leaflets, medicines. Some of these pen drives also carry K-pop songs along with television shows. Last week the activists launched balloons that carried giant posters which were visible from a distance. This has been in response to hundreds of balloons from North Korea that were filled with trash and flown across the borders. North Korea does not want material that seeks to delegitimise the authoritarian Kim regime.
“If the ROK (Republic of Korea/South Korea) simultaneously carries out the leaflet scattering and loudspeaker broadcasting provocation over the border, it will undoubtedly witness the new counteraction of the DPRK” Kim Yo Jong told North Korea’s state news agency KCNA. North Korean forces have fired at the balloons and the loudspeakers in some cases. Seoul had stopped the loudspeaker broadcasts in 2018 after both Koreas signed an agreement in 2018 to reduce tensions on the peninsula. The South Koreans used to broadcast news along with K-pop music through the loudspeakers.
Tensions have risen in the recent past on the Korean peninsula. This has been evident, especially after Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK/North Korea) failed attempt to put their second spy satellite in orbit. Many thought that the launch was a cover for an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The rocket blew up soon after launch. Due to the palpable rising tensions, the United States Air Force (USAF) conducted its first-ever bombing exercise over the peninsula in over seven years. In the comprehensive aerial exercise the USAF flew bombers from its base in Guam, flying for over 3,200 km one way, roughly the length of India. The Americans, South Koreans and the Japanese will also hold joint exercises later this year in order to prepare for any geopolitical eventuality in the region.
Team Bharatshakti
(With input from Reuters)
