In response to North Korea’s 8th cross-border trash balloon launch after a 39-day hiatus, South Korean forces resumed loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea. This action comes as North Korea continues to defy warnings and persistently launches trash balloons into the South.
Today, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff carried out loudspeaker broadcasts targeting areas near the balloon launches. These broadcasts continued until dawn, ceasing when the balloon launches stopped. The response was proportionate in terms of both timing and location.
Reports indicate that both mobile and stationary loudspeakers were employed for these broadcasts. Aimed at North Korean residents, the broadcasts included information that exposed the realities of the Kim Jong Un regime.
South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea on the 9th of last month, marking the first such action in nearly six years. This move came in response to North Korea’s third cross-border trash balloon launch. The resumption follows the dismantling of approximately 40 broadcasting facilities after the Panmunjom Declaration in April 2018.
Since then, North Korea has launched trash balloons into the South four more times, but the South Korean military had paused the loudspeaker broadcasts “to give North Korea a period of reflection.”
A military source warned, “Despite repeated warnings, North Korea’s ‘trash balloon’ launches have continued, resulting in the loudspeaker broadcasts towards North Korea from a strategic and operational perspective. Our military’s response in the future will entirely depend on North Korea’s actions”.
North Korea launched its 8th cross-border trash balloon attack 22 days after the previous one on the 26th of last month. This latest incident involved over 200 trash balloons, with about 40 of them landing in the northern region of Gyeonggi Province. The Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the balloons primarily contained paper and confirmed that no harmful substances were found.