- North Korea has launched hundreds of balloons loaded with garbage towards South Korea.
- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has urged military scientists to get over the failed satellite launch and continue developing space reconnaissance capabilities, saying they are crucial to countering U.S. and South Korean military activity.
- Kim also warned of unspecified “severe” measures against South Korea over a drill involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border held just hours before the North’s failed launch.
North Korea launched hundreds of balloons loaded with garbage and fertilizer toward South Korea in one of its most bizarre acts of provocation in years, prompting South Korean military chemical and explosive response teams to clean up the objects and debris across the country.
The balloon mission came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged military scientists to get beyond a failed satellite launch and continue developing space reconnaissance capabilities that he said are vital to counter U.S. and South Korean military activity, state media reported on Wednesday.
In his first public comments on the failed launch, Kim also warned of the possibility of “overwhelming action” against South Korea over a 20-fighter jet drill near the inter-Korean border conducted just hours before North Korea’s failed launch on Monday. In his speech on Tuesday, Kim described South Korea’s response as “hysterical attack formation flights and attack training” and a “direct military challenge” to North Korea, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.
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South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has been sending balloons loaded with large amounts of garbage back and forth between the two Koreas since Tuesday night, in apparent retaliation for South Korean activists flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.
The South Korean military said that as of Wednesday afternoon, about 260 North Korean balloons had been found lying around the country and were being retrieved by military rapid response and explosive ordnance disposal teams. The balloons had carried various types of garbage and fertilizer, but so far no human waste had been found, according to the military. The military is urging civilians not to touch any objects that have come from North Korea and to report any sightings to the military or police.
Photos released by the military showed trash strewn along highways and arterial roads across the country. In the capital Seoul, military authorities found what appeared to be a timer designed to burst garbage bags in mid-air, while in the central province of South Chungcheong, two giant balloons carrying unburied plastic bags filled with an earth-like substance appeared on a road.
This photo provided by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense was taken in South Chungcheong province, South Korea, on May 29, 2024 and shows balloons carrying trash that appear to have been sent from North Korea. (Associated Press via South Korea’s Presidential Office)
There were no immediate reports of damage from the balloons, although a similar balloon attack by North Korea in 2016 damaged cars and other property.
North Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il said in a statement over the weekend that North Korea plans to scatter “huge piles of waste paper and filth” in border areas and other parts of South Korea in “retaliation” for the distribution of leaflets by South Korean activists.
Kim’s comments about the satellite came during a speech at North Korea’s Academy of Defense Science, where he visited the day after a rocket that was meant to be the country’s second military reconnaissance satellite exploded shortly after launch. North Korea’s Aerospace Technology Agency said the explosion could be related to the reliability of a newly developed rocket engine that runs on petroleum and uses liquid oxygen as an oxidizer.
Since 2022, hostility between the two Koreas has reached its worst level in years, with Kim Jong Un’s weapons displays and the pace of joint military drills between South Korea, the United States and Japan accelerating.
After North Korea’s first military spy satellite went into orbit last November, the failed launch hampers Kim’s plans to launch three more military spy satellites in 2024. The November launch followed two previous failures.
Monday’s rocket launch drew criticism from South Korea, Japan and the United States because the United Nations bans rocket launches by North Korea, viewing them as a pretext for testing long-range missile technology.
North Korea has consistently maintained it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles in the face of U.S.-led military threats. Kim Jong Un has said spy satellites are essential for monitoring U.S. and South Korean military activity and pose a growing threat from its nuclear-capable missiles.
“Given the current situation in which our security environment is changing dramatically due to U.S. military actions and all kinds of provocations, possessing military reconnaissance satellites is a prerequisite for our country to strengthen its defensive deterrent and protect its sovereignty and security from potential threats,” Kim said.
“Although we did not achieve the results we had hoped for from this reconnaissance satellite launch, we must never be afraid or discouraged, but rather work harder. It is only natural that we can learn more by experiencing failure and achieve greater progress.”
North Korea has not commented on when it will be ready to try to launch a satellite again, but some experts say that could be several months.
South Korean experts say state media mention of the liquid oxygen-oil rocket engine suggests North Korea is trying to develop a more powerful space launch vehicle that can handle larger payloads.
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North Korea’s previous space rockets are thought to have used asymmetric dimethylhydrazine as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide as an oxidizer. The rapid shift in the country’s space rocket design could indicate outside technological assistance, possibly from Russia, said Chang Yong-geun, a missile expert at the Korea Institute for National Strategy.
Kim Jong Un has been trying to strengthen ties with Russia in recent months, the highlight of which was a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September, as the two countries aligned themselves in the face of the confrontation with Washington. The meeting between Kim and Putin took place at a spaceport in Russia’s Far East and came after North Korea’s successive failed attempts to launch its first reconnaissance satellite. Putin told Russian journalists that Moscow was ready to help North Korea build a satellite.
The United States and South Korea also accuse North Korea of providing Russia with military equipment such as artillery shells and missiles to prolong the fighting in Ukraine.
