Seoul seeks to implement severe actions against North Korea.
North Korea is back at it, sending balloons loaded with trash across the border into South Korea. Additionally, their attacks on the GPS system seem to be ongoing. In response to this, South Korea has declared retaliation.
A previous measure could be put into practice again.
South Korea has issued an ultimatum to North Korea to cease sending balloons containing garbage over the border. Members of South Korea's General Staff claim that North Korea has not only sent additional garbage-filled balloons since Saturday night but has also carried out five consecutive days of attacks on the GPS system. National Security Advisor Chang Ho Jin, speaking in Seoul, deemed these actions as "irrational provocations unfit for any rational state." During a council meeting, members agreed to implement measures that would be intolerable for North Korea.
Exactly how these measures will present themselves is yet to be seen. So far, over 720 balloons carrying various forms of rubbish have been found in Seoul and other regions of the country. Items discovered include things like cigarette butts, scrap paper, fabric remnants, plastic, and other types of rubbish. Officials have warned not to handle these objects due to their potential hazards.
The rogue regime of Kim Jong Un in North Korea has mainly attributed these acts to actions by private organizations in South Korea, which have been launching balloons filled with propaganda leaflets and other propaganda materials over the border for some time now. The contents of these leaflets call for the overthrow of the government.
North Korea reacts quite resentfully to any propaganda directed against its own leadership. North Korea threatened on the previous Sunday that it would send "piles of paper and trash" over the border regions. According to South Korean sources, around 260 balloons flew over the military demarcation line on Tuesday and Wednesday. Military teams were deployed to retrieve the debris. The balloons were not fired upon, as it could not be ascertained that they contained toxic chemicals, authorities revealed. North Korea's provocations, alongside their missile tests and the GPS interference signals, pose a serious risk, according to Security Advisor Chang. He stated that the actions constituted an effort to "sow fear and disorder across our society."
In response to North Korea's GPS signal interference, South Korea may reinstate loudspeaker broadcasts. Per news reports, North Korea employs devices to disrupt GPS signals in the border region. Citing a government official, South Korean news agency Yonhap suggested that South Korea would utilize loudspeakers along the border to counteract this. The broadcasts toward North Korea were put on hold in 2018 as part of a short-lived peaceful coexistence.
Both North and South Korea have employed these propaganda broadcasts in the past as a tactic of psychological warfare, a relic of the Cold War.
Following the election of a conservative South Korean government in 2021, legislation to ban the distribution of flyers and other objects across the border was enacted. However, the Constitutional Court invalidated the law the subsequent year, arguing that it unjustifiably limited freedom of expression. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been escalating for quite some time now. North Korea has been testing more nuclear-capable missiles and other weapons. South Korea and the United States have been bolstering their military cooperation, including joint exercises.
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South Korea has brought up the possibility of reinforcing their previous sanctions against North Korea, given the ongoing issues. In light of North Korea's continuous dispatch of garbage-filled balloons and GPS system attacks, Seoul's National Security Advisor, Chang Ho Jin, has expressed concern over Kim Jong Un's regime, labeling their actions as "irrational provocations."
