In a strong response to South Korean activists' leafleting campaign, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has declared that North Korea will soon resume flying trash-carrying balloons across the border. This comes after North Korea had previously launched a series of balloons carrying waste material towards South Korea as a tit-for-tat action.

Since late May, North Korea has used these balloons to send waste paper, cloth scraps, cigarette butts, and even manure across the border in response to South Korean activists scattering political leaflets via their own balloons. South Korea, in turn, suspended a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea and resumed live-fire drills at border areas as a response.

Kim Yo Jong, in a statement carried by state media, expressed frustration at the continued leafleting activities of South Korean activists. She referred to the leaflets and other materials found in North Korea on Sunday morning as "dirty" and condemned the "crude and dirty play" by the South Korean "scum." She warned that North Korea has implemented countermeasures and that the South Korean clans will face severe consequences for their actions.

This is not the first time North Korea has used balloons to retaliate against leafleting campaigns. They had last sent rubbish-carrying balloons towards South Korea in late July. However, it remains unclear which activists' group in South Korea recently sent balloons to North Korea.

For years, groups led by North Korean defectors have been floating huge balloons containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs, South Korean dramas, and even U.S. dollar bills towards North Korea. These campaigns are regarded by North Korea as a grave provocation, as they challenge the country's control over information and its leadership.

In response to these activities, South Korea redeployed loudspeakers along the border on June 9 for the first time in six years, resuming anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts. South Korean officials maintain that they do not restrict activists from flying leaflets to North Korea, citing a 2023 constitutional court ruling that overturned a law criminalizing such leafleting as a violation of free speech.

Kim Yo Jong's statement comes on the heels of North Korea's Defense Ministry threatening to enhance its nuclear capabilities and make the U.S. and South Korea pay "an unimaginably harsh price." This was in response to the rivals' new defense guidelines, which North Korea claims reveal an intention to invade the North.

The tension between North and South Korea continues to escalate, raising concerns about the stability of the region and the potential for further escalation in the future.