More than 100 flights carrying 10,000 people have been halted by trash-carrying balloons pushed across the border by North Korea, a politician from South Korea claimed on Wednesday.
Pyongyang has responded to identical missives flown northward by activists in the South carrying propaganda against Kim Jong Un by launching over a thousand balloons carrying bags of rubbish into the South.
On June 26, flights into and out of South Korea’s Incheon airport were momentarily forced to halt due to the North’s balloon launch. Over the course of the previous month, other balloon launches have necessitated the postponement or divergence of other flights.
MP Jeong Jun-ho stated, using updated statistics from the ministry of transportation, that the balloon launches, which started in late May, have caused disruptions to 115 commercial aircraft, impacting over 10,000 passengers.
According to a press release, at least 15 aircraft, including long-haul arrivals from the US, were compelled to make alternate landings, and passengers were subsequently taken to Incheon, resulting in protracted delays and annoyance.
“Were scheduled to land at Incheon International Airport, hundreds of passengers from flights out of San Francisco, Vancouver, and Los Angeles ended up at Cheongju Airport without knowing what was going on,” he claimed.
The disruption is “an embodiment of Korea Risk”, said Jeong, referring to the term used to describe investor hesitancy over military threats from the North.
In order to stop activists from sending the balloons into the North, Jeong asked authorities to take further action.
A 2023 court decision prohibiting the sending of balloons across the border by activists as an unjustified restriction on free speech means that South Korea is unable to penalize such activists.
As Pyongyang gets closer to Russia and increases its missile testing, tensions between the two Koreas are at an all-time low due to claims that Pyongyang is giving Moscow weaponry to use in the conflict in Ukraine.
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies said in a research released on Monday that North Korea has realized that bragging about its ideology to South Koreans is “laughable” and has turned to sending rubbish instead of propaganda leaflets as it did during the Cold War.
“However… they should not be taken lightly. The trash-filled balloons and the damage they do is a form of soft terrorism.”
