SEOUL: A North Korean balloon carrying trash landed on Seoul’s presidential compound on Thursday (Oct 24), authorities said, with local media reporting it contained propaganda leaflets ridiculing President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife.
Activist groups in South Korea have long sent propaganda northwards, typically carried by balloons, including leaflets, US dollar bills and sometimes USB drives containing K-pop or K-dramas, which are banned in the tightly controlled North.
North Korea has been bombarding the South with trash-carrying balloons since May, in what it says is retaliation for the activists’ propaganda missives.
A balloon from the North “exploded in the air, and the fallen debris was identified scattered around the Yongsan office area” early on Thursday morning, the Presidential Security Service said in a statement sent to AFP, referring to the presidential compound.
The service added that a safety inspection confirmed “it posed no dangerous risk or contamination”.
It marks the second time the South Korean leader’s office in downtown Seoul, which is protected by scores of soldiers and a no-fly zone, has been directly hit by balloons launched from the North, with the first incident occurring in July.
