South Korea has told its citizens to remain indoors after accusing North Korea of dropping at least 260 balloons containing rubbish and faeces in the country.
Experts are analysing the balloons after being discovered in eight of South Korea’s nine regions.
Photos on social media show transparent plastic bags hanging from white inflated balloons in the sky.
North Korea has launched 100+ balloons towards South Korea.
— Radio Seville (@RadioSeville) May 29, 2024
The balloons either contain propaganda leaflets, sewage, or garbage.
South Korea still detects balloons airborne. pic.twitter.com/Iv8R6eFq85
A South Korean military official said the balloons contained items including plastic bottles, batteries, and abandoned shoe parts.
The Yonhap news agency in South Korea said "some of the fallen balloons carried what appears to be faeces judging from its dark colour and odour".
Military officials said the incident was a "clear violation of international law".
North and South Korea have used balloons in their propaganda campaigns since the Korean War in the 1950s.
The latest incident comes a few days after North Korea threatened to react against the South’s "frequent scattering of leaflets and other rubbish" in border areas.
"Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them,” North Korea's vice-minister of defence, Kim Kang II, told state media on Sunday (May 26).
The sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Yo-jong, mocked a South Korean military statement on Wednesday (May 29) that demanded that the North cease its "inhumane and vulgar activity".
She said the North was only expressing its right to free speech.
That referred to the Seoul government’s claim that it would be against the people's right to free speech to stop anti-North Korean demonstrators from flying flyers across the border.
"Once you experience how nasty and exhausting it feels to go around picking up dirty filth, you will realise that you shouldn't talk about freedom of expression so easily when it comes to [leafletting] in border areas." she said.
