This combination of pictures released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on early October 19, 2024, shows a balloon and items apparently from South Korea, found on October 18 in the southern border area in North Korea.
| Photo Credit: KCNA VIA KNS / AFP

“Trash carried by a North Korean balloon fell on the presidential compound in central Seoul on Thursday (October 23, 2024),” officials said, the second such case in recent months that raises concerns about the vulnerability of key South Korean sites during potential North Korean aggression.

The incident comes after the rival Koreas ramped up threats and rhetoric against each other over North Korea’s claims that South Korea flew drones over its capital Pyongyang to scatter propaganda leaflets this month.

South Korea’s presidential security service said in a statement that one of the balloons floated by North Korea burst over the South Korean presidential compound on Thursday (October 23, 2024) morning, dropping rubbish on the ground. No dangerous items were found.

North Korea has sent trash-carrying balloons into South Korea since late May in a resumption of a Cold War-style psychological campaign. The trash that fell on the South Korean presidential compound in July contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt.

It wasn’t immediately known whether South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was at the compound during the latest incident. His schedule showed he was due to meet with visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda at his office later Thursday (October 23, 2024).

South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported earlier Thursday (October 23, 2024) on its website that North Korea’s latest balloons contained propaganda leaflets criticising Mr. Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee along with trash.

The newspapers said the leaflets were scattered in areas in Seoul’s Yongsan district, where Mr. Yoon’s presidential office is located, and noted that North Korea has recently begun using GPS technology to drop balloons more accurately in intended locations.

The South Korean presidential security service didn’t immediately confirm the report.

Experts say North Korea likely lacks sophisticated technology to drop balloons on specific targets.

“Whether the balloons have GPS or not, it’s all about launching them in large numbers and hitting the right altitude based on wind direction and speed, so that they can ride those winds to travel,” Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, said.

“While some media are saying the accuracy of the balloons has improved, that improved accuracy isn’t because they equipped them with some sort of guidance system, but rather because it’s the season when winds blow southward,” researcher Lee said.

North Korea has earlier accused South Korea of “infiltrating drones” to drop propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened military responses if it happened again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned that North Korea would face the end of its regime if the safety of South Korean citizens is threatened.

North Korea said its balloon activities were in response to South Korean activists launching anti-Pyongyang leaflets via their own balloons. South Korea responded by restarting propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas, prompting North Korea to turn on their own frontline loudspeakers.

The Koreas’ Cold War-style campaigns come as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has increased the pace of his weapons tests and expanded military cooperation with Russia.

U.S. and South Korean officials said Wednesday (October 23, 2024) that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations. South Korean officials say North Korea eventually aims to send a total of 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war efforts in Ukraine.

South Korea is concerned that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated technologies that could improve the North’s nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea and its allies.

South Korean Army soldiers collect the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, on July 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Trash from at least one North Korean balloon fell on the South Korean Presidential compound on July 24, raising worries about the security of key South Korean facilities from North Korean provocations.

“The rubbish that fell on the ground at the compound in central Seoul contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt,” South Korea’s Presidential security service said in a statement. But experts say South Korea needs to shoot incoming North Korean balloons at border areas next time, as it’s not clear whether North Korea would put in hazardous items in future campaigns.

North Korea’s latest balloon launches came days after South Korea boosted its frontline broadcasts of K-pop songs and propaganda messages across the rivals’ heavily armed border. Their tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns are inflaming tensions, with the rivals threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences.

Seoul officials earlier said North Korea had used the direction of winds to fly balloons toward South Korea, but some of the past balloons had timers that were likely meant to pop the bags of trash midair. The security service gave no further details about the rubbish found at the Presidential compound, such as whether balloons were discovered along with the trash.

If North Korea is found to have used timers or any other device to deliberately dump trash on key South Korean facilities such as the Presidential office, it would certainly invite strong response by South Korea. But experts say dropping balloons at ground targets is extremely sophisticated technology and that North Korea would certainly lack such an ability.

The security service refused to disclose whether President Yoon Suk Yeol was in the office at the time. Mr.Yoon’s office earlier said he has no official schedule on July 24.

‘North Korean landmines could float into South Korea’

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier on Wednesday that North Korean balloons were flying north of Seoul after crossing the border and had urged people to be alert for falling objects.

It was North Korea’s 10th such launch since late May. The more than 2,000 huge balloons so far have dropped wastepaper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure on South Korea. North Korea has said it was responding to South Korean activists scattering political leaflets across the border via their own balloons.

Experts say North Korea considers South Korean civilian leafleting activities a major threat to its efforts to stop the inflow of foreign news and maintain its authoritarian rule. In furious responses to past South Korean leafletting, North Korea destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in its territory in 2020 and fired at incoming balloons in 2014.

The North’s balloons haven’t caused major damage but have raised security jitters among people, worried North Korea could use such balloons to drop more hazardous materials such as chemical- and biological agents.

South Korea said on Sunday it was ramping up its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts from its loudspeakers at all major sites along the land border because North Korea was continuing launches of trash-carrying balloons. South Korea restarted last Thursday its loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in about 40 days in retaliation for North Korea’s previous balloon activities.

Observers say South Korean propaganda broadcasts can demoralise frontline North Korean troops and residents. In 2015, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border in anger over South Korea’s restart of propaganda broadcasts, prompting the South to return fire.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the ongoing South Korean broadcasts include K-pop songs and news on South Korean economic development. South Korean media reported the broadcasts also contained news on the recent defection of a senior North Korean diplomat and called the mine-planting work by North Korean soldiers at the border “hellish, slave-like lives.”

South Korea has an estimated 40 loudspeakers — 24 stationary and 16 mobile ones. South Korea’s military said on July 22 it was fully operating the fixed loudspeakers and plans to use the mobile loudspeakers as well.

South Korea’s military has warned of other unspecified stronger steps if North Korea continues its balloon campaigns. North Korea hasn’t made an official response to the South Korean propaganda broadcasts. But last week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, threatened new countermeasures against South Korean civilian leafleting as she warned that South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price” over their actions.

This photo provided by South Korea Defence Ministry, shows balloons with trash presumably sent by North Korea, in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. File
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea’s trash balloon campaign, missile launches and the emergence of GPS “spoofing” have increased risks in South Korean airspace, aviation experts say, complicating airline operations as tensions rise between the rival nations.

In late May, North Korea began floating thousands of balloons with bags of trash, including human excrement, suspended under them into South Korea, in what analysts say is a form of psychological warfare.

Hundreds of balloons landed in the South during seven waves between May 29 and June 27, including one on a runway at Incheon airport, forcing a three-hour suspension of takeoffs and landings at its biggest international gateway.

When the balloons first appeared, aviation navigation interference from North Korea also spiked, including what appears to be the first bout of so-called “spoofing” affecting commercial aircraft in the South.

“Airspace safety is gradually deteriorating,” OPSGROUP, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk information,” said in a June bulletin. “There are no official airspace warnings for South Korea, but the risk situation seems to be getting worse.”

South Korea’s Transport Ministry said its military, air traffic control authorities and airlines maintain a 24-hour surveillance and communication system.

“The South Korean military detects these balloons using surveillance assets… day and night,” a military spokesperson said, without giving further details.

North Korea, which also launched trash balloons in 2016, says they were retaliation for propaganda campaigns by North Korean defectors and activists in the South who send items via balloon.

Balloons have made flying in the area “quite complicated”

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.

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

“If northerly winds are expected, the airline adds fuel to flight plans so aircraft can stay aloft longer or divert to alternative airports,” Mr. Yun said.

Disruption caused by the balloon campaign is being exacerbated by increased signs of interference to the Global Positioning System (GPS), a network of satellites and receivers used for navigation.

Militaries and other actors can broadcast signals that trick a GPS system into thinking it is somewhere it is not.

“This could lead pilots to drift off course, with the risk of straying into North Korean airspace,” said Kari Bingen, the aerospace security project director at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“Between May 29 and June 2 about 500 planes and hundreds of ships experienced GPS problems,” South Korea’s government said. It complained to U.N. aviation body ICAO, which warned North Korea to stop.

GPS spoofing appears new

“GPS interruptions in the South from North Korea have occurred for more than a decade, but spoofing appears new,” said SkAI, a Swiss company that runs a live disruption map.

“SkAI detected spoofing in South Korean airspace between May 29 and June 2 that affected dozens of planes,” co-founder Benoit Figuet said. “Some of the impacted airplanes were flying quite low in altitude. We even have seen airplanes being spoofed while being on the ground,” Benoit said.

Notifications to pilots issued by South Korea in May and June warned planes flying around Incheon and Seoul to “exercise extreme caution when using GPS”.

“No major aviation accident has been linked to GPS spoofing globally, but a business jet flying from Europe to Dubai nearly entered Iranian airspace without clearance in September 2023,” OPSGROUP said.

North Korea said last year it would shoot down anything it deemed a reconnaissance flight entering its airspace.

Most airlines avoid North Korean airspace. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration bans overflights of North Korea for reasons including unannounced ballistic missile tests, air defence capabilities and potential electronic warfare.

“South Korea’s airspace is at constant risk of instability caused by some kind of political crisis,” OPSGROUP said. “Things have potential to change quickly, and without warning.”

Kim Yo Jong. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called South Korea’s recent front-line live-fire drills “suicidal hysteria” as she threatened unspecified military steps on July 8 if further provoked.

The warning by Kim Yo Jong came after South Korea resumed firing exercises near its tense land and sea borders with North Korea in the past two weeks. The exercises were the first of their kind since South Korea suspended a 2018 agreement with the North aimed at easing front-line military tensions in June.

“The question is why the enemy kicked off such war drills near the border, suicidal hysteria, for which they will have to sustain terrible disaster,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

She accused South Korea’s conservative government of deliberately escalating tensions as a way to escape a domestic political crisis. She said the riskiness of the South Korean drills is clear to everyone as they happened amid “a touch-and-go situation” established after the U.S., South Korea and Japan recently held a new trilateral military exercise that North Korea views as a security threat.

“In case it is judged according to our criteria that they violated the sovereignty of (North Korea) and committed an act tantamount to a declaration of war, our armed forces will immediately carry out its mission and duty assigned by the (North Korean) constitution,” she said, without elaborating.

Later on Monday, Koo Byoungsam, a spokesperson at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, described Kim’s statement as an attempt to trigger an internal divide in South Korea, saying that North Korea must first look at its own human rights violations and the international isolation caused by its nuclear programme.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry separately said it will continue its live-fire drills as scheduled but didn’t say when and where new exercises are planned.

North Korea has been engaged in a provocative run of weapons tests since 2022. But its two recent tests — one on a missile with “a super-large warhead” and the other on a multiwarhead missile — drew widespread skepticism from South Korean officials and experts who said North Korea likely fabricated successful launches to cover up failed tests.

In early June, South Korea fully suspend the 2018 inter-Korean military pact after North Korea flew balloons carrying manure, cigarette butts and wastepaper across the border to protest South Korean activists scattering political leaflets in the North via their own balloons.

The military agreement — reached during a short-lived era of reconciliation between the Koreas — required the two countries to cease all hostile acts at border areas, such as live-firing drills, aerial surveillance and psychological warfare. The deal had already been in the danger of collapse, with both Koreas taking steps in breach of it amid animosities over North Korea’s spy satellite launch last November.