North Korea accused of sending faeces-filled balloons across border

North Korea was on Wednesday accused of sending hundreds of balloons containing rubbish and faeces across the heavily fortified border with South Korea. The South Korean military had released images showing inflated balloons with plastic bags tethered to them. The military in Seoul said that around 260 such balloons filled with trash and excrement had […]

North Korea was on Wednesday accused of sending hundreds of balloons containing rubbish and faeces across the heavily fortified border with South Korea.

The South Korean military had released images showing inflated balloons with plastic bags tethered to them.

The military in Seoul said that around 260 such balloons filled with trash and excrement had been launched by Wednesday.

They fell in various parts of the country, sometimes far from the border.

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Earlier, on Sunday, North Korea said it would send mounds of wastepaper and filth in a tit-for-tat action against the recent distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets flown across the border in the opposite direction.

South Korea would directly experience how much effort it takes to remove the rubbish, a statement attributed to North Korea’s vice defence minister saying at the weekend.

For years, organisations formed by North Korean refugees in South Korea had carried out propaganda campaigns at the border, sending out large balloons with leaflets calling for the overthrow of the leadership in Pyongyang.

Under the former South Korean government, a law came into force in 2021 banning the sending of leaflets and other objects along the military demarcation line between the two countries.

However, the Constitutional Court lifted the ban in 2023, arguing that it restricted freedom of expression. (dpa/NAN)