The trash is flying again across the border separating first-world South Korea with its communist dictatorship sibling to the north.
The so-called Hermit Nation of North Korea has resumed sending balloons filled with garbage into the air onto their southern cousins in a resurgence of the kind of Cold War-era demoralization campaigns that used to be common. According the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, officials said they counted 420 balloons from Kim Jong-Un’s side of the border in just one day from September 4 to 5. They say the balloons are stuffed with paper, empty plastic bottles and common trash, but don’t seem to contain anything dangerous.
The Joint Chiefs ask the public to avoid touching the balloons and instead report them to the police or military.
One reporter for the Associated Press witnessed several groups of white balloons floating in the air above the border.
The population in South Korea may have been alarmed to get text message alerts from the city government in Seoul advising the public to stay inside and watch the sky for anything that might drop.
North Korea has been sending these rubber care packages of trash down to South Korea since May of this year. They’re usually filled with bits of paper, cloth, cigarette butts, and even cow dung. But the South Koreans are playing the same game, flying leaflets criticizing the communist government over the border to the north.
As dictatorships usually are, North Korea is on high alert for any criticism of its “dear leader.” Kim Jong-Un is the third generation of dictators, following his grandfather and father before him.
South Korea is using audio, too. The nation has set up speakers near the border to blast political propaganda and pop songs toward its northern neighbors.
It’s really a blast from the past, mimicking the Cold War era competition between the two countries. North Korea would love to gobble up the free citizens to its south into the communist maw, while developed South Korea wants to see its northern cousins free again.
