Authorities announced Thursday that a North Korean balloon carrying rubbish had landed on Seoul’s presidential palace; local media said that the balloon contained propaganda leaflets mocking President Yoon Suk Yeol and his spouse.
For a long time, South Korean activist groups have been sending propaganda northwards, usually on balloons. The propaganda includes pamphlets, US dollar bills, and occasionally USB drives that include K-pop or K-dramas that are prohibited in the tightly controlled North.
Since May, North Korea has been pelting the South with balloons containing trash, claiming this is punishment for the propaganda letters sent by the activists.
A balloon from the North “exploded in the air, and the fallen debris was identified scattered around the Yongsan office area” early Thursday morning, the Presidential Security Service said in a statement sent to AFP, referring to the presidential compound.
According to the service, “it posed no dangerous risk or contamination” after a safety inspection.
It is the second time balloons fired from the North have struck the South Korean leader’s office in downtown Seoul, which is guarded by a no-fly zone and dozens of soldiers. The first event happened in July.
The balloon was carrying anti-South leaflets that made fun of South Korean President Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee, according to South Korea’s Chosun Daily.
The pamphlets featured pictures of the couple with statements like “South Korea is the Kingdom of Keon Hee” and “It’s fortunate that President Yoon and his wife have no children.”
The South Korean first lady, Kim Keon Hee, faces allegations of participating in a stock manipulation scheme and meddling in the conservative ruling People Power Party’s candidate nominations in the lead-up to the April general elections.
When AFP requested the South Korean military to confirm the allegation, they refused.
The event occurred just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, accused South Korean activists of delivering anti-Pyongyang materials into the North and South Korea of sending unmanned drones to Pyongyang, the country’s capital.
“Seoul will have to experience at first hand so as to know properly how dangerous act it committed and how terrible and fatal the consequences it brought on itself are,” she said.
At least 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Russia and are undergoing training there, according to Washington, which warned on Wednesday that if they fight in Ukraine, Kyiv would legitimately strike them.
