Despite North Korea’s fifth round of trash balloon launches against the South, the South Korean military decided not to broadcast propaganda over loudspeakers toward North Korea on June 25.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated on June 25, “The military is always ready to broadcast,” adding, “The military will flexibly implement it, considering strategic and operational situations.” The Joint Chiefs of Staff’s policy is to broadcast propaganda toward North Korea if given the task immediately. They added, “Everything depends on North Korea’s actions, and the military closely monitors North Korea’s movements.”
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff indicated that if North Korea launches trash balloons or if North Korea provokes against the South again during military training, there is a possibility of responding with propaganda broadcasts towards North Korea.
On June 25, the South Korean Army conducted a live-fire exercise with the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) K-239 Cheonmu. For the first time since the full suspension of the 9/19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement, the Marine Corps K-9 self-propelled howitzers will conduct a live-fire exercise targeting the West Sea buffer zone. A joint maritime exercise involving the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and the U.S. 9th Carrier Strike Group is also scheduled.
The South Korean military resumed broadcasting propaganda towards North Korea through loudspeakers for the first time in about six years on the afternoon of June 9 as a response to North Korea’s third round of trash balloon launches against the South.
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the South Korean military identified 350 trash balloons from June 9 to 9 AM on June 10. No balloons were found being identified in the air.
The number of trash balloons that fell in South Korea is estimated to be over 100. The balloons’ contents are mostly paper trash. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff explained that there were no safety hazards according to the current analysis results.
In response to the propaganda leaflet launches by defector groups from South Korea, North Korea sent over 1,600 trash balloons to its southern counterparts in four rounds on May 28-29, June 1-2, 8-9, and the night of June 9.
Deputy Director of the North Korean Workers’ Party, Kim Yo Jong, criticized the defector group’s propaganda leaflet launches towards North Korea on June 20 in a statement released on June 2. She stated, “If they do what we told them not to do, then it’s natural that we have to do something we don’t have to do.”