Seoul: N. Korea Launches over 300 Trash-Carrying Balloons

North Korea has launched hundreds of balloons carrying trash toward South Korea over the past two days, Seoul's military said Sunday, amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's continued balloon campaign. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it had detected some 330 waste-carrying balloons launched by the North since Saturday, with more than 80 of them landing inside South Korea and the rest apparently failing to reach the country, Yonhap News Agency reported. The latest balloons appeared to be carrying trash, such as scraps of paper and plastic, the JCS said, noting that it was preparing for the possibility of the North launching additional balloons. The latest balloon campaign came after South Korean civic groups' launch of large balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda to the North between Friday and Saturday. Since May 28, the North has staged the balloon campaign, which it described as a "tit-for-tat" response to anti-Pyongyang leafleting by activists in South Korea. It launched nearly 1,000 trash- carrying balloons into the South late last month and early last week. The Seoul metropolitan government said it has received reports of about 30 of these balloons as of 8 a.m. (local time). Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, a port city west of Seoul, also reported balloons in various locations, including at the Yellow Sea and other residential areas south of the border with North Korea. So far, no casualties or property damage have been reported. Source: Qatar News Agency