Neighbors Again Trade Balloons

North Korea resumed flying balloons on Saturday in a likely attempt to drop trash on South Korea again, South Korea's military said, two days after Seoul activists floated their own balloons to scatter propaganda leaflets in the North. Animosities between the two Koreas have risen recently because North Korea launched hundreds of balloons carrying manure and trash toward South Korea in protest of previous South Korean civilian leafletting campaigns, the AP reports. In response, South Korea suspended a tension-easing agreement with North Korea to restore front-line military activities.

Saturday's balloon launches by North Korea were the third of their kind since May 28. It wasn't immediately known if any of of the North Korean balloons had landed on South Korean territory across the rivals' tense border. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korean balloons likely carrying trash were moving east but could eventually fly toward the south because the wind direction was forecast to change later. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advised the public to beware of falling objects and not to touch balloons found on the ground but report them to police or military authorities, per the AP.

After the North's two rounds of balloon activities, South Korean authorities discovered about 1,000 balloons tied to vinyl bags containing manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste batteries, and waste papers. Some were popped and scattered on roads, residential areas and schools. No highly dangerous materials were found and no major damage has been reported. The North's vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, later said his country would stop the balloon campaign but threatened to resume it if South Korean activists sent leaflets again. In defiance of the warning, a South Korean civilian group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak said it launched 10 balloons from a border town on Thursday carrying 200,000 anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean dramas, and $1 US bills. South Korean media reported another activist group flew balloons with 200,000 propaganda leaflets toward North Korea on Friday.

(More North Korea stories.)