SEOUL: South Korea said on Monday it will take “decisive military action” if anyone is killed in North Korea's wave of trash-carrying balloons across the border.
Pyongyang has sent up more than 5,500 balloons laden with trash since May, disrupting flights, starting fires and even hitting government buildings in the South.
Pyongyang says the tactic is a response to activists in the South sending propaganda balloons to the North.
Seoul “will take decisive military action if North Korea's garbage balloons pose a serious security threat or are deemed to have crossed a line,” Lee Sung-joon of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters.
“It would be a line crossed if someone died as a result of the balloons,” he said, without elaborating on exactly what the “decisive” measures would be.
Most of the balloons sent by North Korea have used paper bags attached to them, which pose no specific health risks, but concerns have been raised after new devices attached to some have caused fires in recent weeks.
“Our military is closely monitoring the North Korean military and tracking the launching point of the balloons in real time,” Lee of the JCS said.
The warning came hours after the latest balloon launch briefly disrupted flights at Incheon airport.
Shortly after North Korea launched garbage-filled balloons in May, Seoul suspended a military agreement with Pyongyang and resumed propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.
Relations between North and South Korea are at one of their lowest points in years, after North Korea recently announced the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers on its southern border.
North Korea also released images of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time earlier this month, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring it as he called for more centrifuges to boost its nuclear arsenal.
The country, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and is subject to numerous United Nations sanctions over its banned weapons programs, has never before publicly disclosed details of its uranium enrichment facilities.
“The North could carry out its seventh nuclear test any time Kim Jong Un gives the green light… even before or after the U.S. presidential election” in November, Shin Won-sik, the president's national security adviser, said in an interview with the North on Monday. Yonhap News Television.
