North Korea made one of the strangest moves against its rival in years by sending hundreds of trash-carrying balloons towards South Korea. This caused the South Korean military to send chemical and explosive response teams to different parts of the country to pick up objects and debris.
According to state media on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told his military scientists to keep working on space-based reconnaissance capabilities even though a satellite launch failed. He said these capabilities were important for protecting the country from military activities by the US and South Korea.
In his first public comments about the failed launch, Kim also threatened South Korea with “stern” action because of an exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the border between the two Koreas that happened hours before North Korea’s launch on Monday. He did not say what action would be taken.
The South Korean response was called “hysterical insanity” and “a very dangerous provocation that cannot be ignored” by Kim in a speech on Tuesday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.
In another sign of the tense situation between the warring enemies, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korea has been sending a lot of trash-filled balloons towards the South since Tuesday night. This is likely a response to South Korean activists who sent anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the border.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the South’s military said that about 260 North Korean balloons had been dropped in different parts of the country. These balloons were being picked up by military rapid response and explosive clearance teams. It told people not to touch the things that were flown from North Korea and to tell the military or police if they found them.
From different parts of the country, photos released by the military showed trash all over the roads and highways.
Officials from the military found what looked like a timer in Seoul, the capital. It was probably meant to pop the trash bags in the air. At a road in the central part of South Chungcheong province, two huge balloons were seen carrying a plastic bag that hadn’t been popped. The bag was full of things that looked like dirt.
At first, there were no reports of damage from the balloons. In 2016, North Korea did similar things with balloons that hurt cars and other property.
South Korean activists were handing out leaflets over the weekend. In a statement released over the weekend, North Korean Vice Defence Minister Kim Kang Il said that the North was planning to spread “mounds of wastepaper and filth” over border areas and other parts of South Korea as a “tit-for-tat” response.
Kim Jong Un talked about the satellite in a speech at the North’s Academy of Defence Sciences. He went there the day after a rocket carrying what was supposed to be his country’s second military reconnaissance satellite exploded soon after takeoff.
The aerospace technology administration of North Korea said the explosion might have been caused by problems with a brand-new rocket engine that runs on oil and uses liquid oxygen to burn things.
The level of anger between the Koreas is the lowest it has been in years. Since 2022, both Kim’s public displays of weapons and South Korea’s joint military drills with the US and Japan have sped up.
Kim had planned to launch three more military spy satellites in 2024, after North Korea’s first military reconnaissance satellite was put into orbit last November. The failed launch of the satellite was a setback to his plans. The launch in November came after two failed attempts.
South Korea, Japan, and the US all spoke out against North Korea’s launch on Monday. This is because the UN forbids North Korea from carrying out such rocket launches because they are seen as cover for testing long-range missile technology.
When it comes to what it sees as U.S.-led military threats, North Korea has always said it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles. Kim has said that spy satellites are necessary to keep an eye on U.S. and South Korean military activities and make his nuclear-capable missiles even more dangerous.
“Our country needs to get military reconnaissance satellites to make our self-defense deterrence even stronger… in light of the serious changes to our nation’s security environment caused by U.S. military manoeuvres and other provocative actions,” Kim said.
Some experts say it could take months for North Korea to be ready to try to launch a satellite again, but the country hasn’t said when it will be ready.
Some South Korean experts say that the fact that state media talked about a liquid oxygen-petroleum rocket engine suggests that the North is working on making a stronger space rocket that can carry bigger payloads.
North Korea’s old space rockets may have used unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide to burn things off. Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy, said that the country’s quick changes to space rocket designs could mean that it got technology from outside sources, most likely Russia.
In the past few months, Kim has been making his relationship with Russia more public. In September, he held a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was a big deal because it showed that the two countries were on the same side against Washington.
Kim’s meeting with Putin took place at a spaceport in the far east of Russia. It happened after North Korea failed three times in a row to launch its first spy satellite. Putin then told Russian news outlets that Moscow was ready to help North Korea make satellites.
The US and South Korea have also said that North Korea gives Russia artillery shells, missiles, and other military gear to help it fight in Ukraine longer.
