By REUTERS

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North Korea has sent aloft thousands of balloons with bags of trash attached since May, which have crossed the border to become a new source of tension with the neighbouring South.

The balloons have disrupted flights at Seoul’s Incheon airport, sparked a fire on the roof of a residential building, and even landed in the precincts of the South’s presidential palace. Across swathes of the country, they have hit cars, farms, neighbourhoods, restaurants, and schools.

At least 1,300 arrived in all but two provinces of South Korea, according to the Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS).

Where some balloons were found

Of the hundreds that landed, CSIS used local media reports to locate 130 of the sites, shown below.

The true number of landing sites is much higher, however, with waste found in 3,359 places nationwide from May 28 to July 25, according to police data provided to Yang Bu-nam, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party.

The majority of these fell in the capital, Seoul, with more than 2,000 locations documented, according to the data.

Most of the landing sites verified by CSIS are also located in or around the capital.

Authorities dispatched more than 10,000 firefighters and 2,400 fire engines to deal with the incidents from Jan. 1 to Aug. 13, according to National Fire Agency data, also submitted to Yang.

Many of the balloons landed intact with trash bags still full, while others scattered debris on the ground. Media reports show some pictured with what appears to be an electronic device used to release the contents mid-air.

North's “gifts of sincerity”

The balloons have contained traces of fertiliser, batteries, cigarette butts, clothes, soil, plastic bottles, toilet paper, wastepaper, and vinyl.

Also, among the trash that balloons carried over the border were articles printed with Hello Kitty characters, badly worn clothing, and soil containing parasites that may have originated from human faeces, South Korea has said.

Plastic bags containing various objects, including what appeared to be trash, and a cigarette butt found from a balloon were seen in Seoul on June 2, 2024. PHOTO| REUTERS

The South has deployed military explosives units and chemical and biological warfare teams to inspect some of the items, but no dangerous substances have been found yet.

Also included were clothes provided from the South that were slashed and cut up, and general trash that appeared to be hastily collected, the South's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said in a report.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a powerful ruling party official, has described the balloons as “gifts of sincerity” for South Koreans.

Flights disrupted

The balloon flights have several times shut down operations at Incheon, the world's fifth busiest international airport and an important cargo hub, about 40 km (25 miles) from North Korea.

Runway operations have been halted 12 times since May because of the balloons, for a total of 265 minutes, according to data provided by the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration to lawmaker Yang Bu-nam.

The balloons have made flying in the area “quite complicated”, said Hwang Yun-chan, general manager of network operations for Korean Air, which has adapted procedures to deal with the new hazard.

If winds from the North are expected, the airline adds fuel to flight plans so aircraft can stay aloft longer or divert to alternative airports, Hwang said.

Data from FlightRadar24 shows the path of some redirected flights on June 25 due to the balloons.

The North has said it is retaliating to a propaganda campaign by activists in the South, who regularly send inflatables in the other direction, loaded with anti-Pyongyang leaflets along with food, medicine, money and USB sticks carrying K-pop videos and dramas.

“The biggest threat to North Korea is the fact that the wealthy, powerful South is right next door, and that news of that neighbour and the free world spreading there which might bring change in society from within,” South Korea's defence minister, Shin Won-sik, told Reuters in an interview this month.

Read: North Korea calls South's leader 'a parrot raised by America'

“The North's actions show how damaging the leaflets sent by our NGOs are to them. By sending those trash balloons, they would want to create fatigue in the South, divide the public and eventually stop the NGOs' balloon campaigns.”

The trash balloons have prompted South Korea’s military to restart loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, targeting the North. Experts say North Korea detests such broadcasts because it fears they could demoralize frontline troops and citizens.​