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Seoul says North Korea has resumed balloon launches likely to drop trash in ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea

SEOUL, ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea (AP) β€” North Korea resumed launches of balloons likely carrying trash toward ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea on Monday night, ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea's military said, in the latest round of a Cold War-style campaign on the Korean Peninsula.
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In this photo provided by Fighters For A Free North Korea, North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, left, and a member of Fighters For A Free North Korea hold balloons bearing anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets in Paju, near the border with North Korea, ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea, Thursday, June 20, 2024. A ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea activists' group said Friday it again flew large balloons carrying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets toward North Korea, adding to a campaign that aggravated animosities between the rivals and prompted a resumption of Cold War-style psychological warfare along their border. (Fighters For A Free North Korea via AP)

SEOUL, ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea (AP) β€” North Korea resumed launches of balloons likely carrying trash toward ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea on Monday night, ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea's military said, in the latest round of a Cold War-style campaign on the Korean Peninsula.

The launches came days after North Korean leader signed a major defense deal that observers worry could embolden Kim to direct more provocations at ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea.

A statement from ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean balloons were moving south. It said earlier Monday that the military was closely monitoring North Korean moves because northerly or northwesterly winds, favorable for the balloon launches, were forecast.

The statement asked ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korean citizens not to touch North Korean balloons and report them to military and police authorities. The military didn’t say how it would respond to new balloon launches.

Starting in late May, North Korea launched that dropped manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste batteries and vinyl in various parts of ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea. No highly dangerous materials were found. North Korea said its balloon campaign was a tit-for-tat action against who flew political leaflets critical of its leadership across the border.

Kim’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, suggested Friday that North Korea would resume its balloon campaign in retaliation for ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korean civilian groups' new round of leaflet activities. A ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korean group said it sent 20 balloons carrying 300,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks with ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korean pop songs and TV dramas and U.S. one-dollar bills across the border on Thursday night.

β€œWhen you do something you were clearly warned not to do, it’s only natural that you will find yourself dealing with something you didn’t have to,” Kim Yo Jong said.

In reaction to North Korea’s earlier balloon campaign, ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea’s military on June 9 redeployed along the border for the first time in six years and resumed The broadcasts reportedly included hits by K-pop sensation BTS such as and β€œDynamite,” weather forecasts and news on Samsung, the biggest ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korean company, as well as criticism of North Korea’s missile program and its crackdown on foreign videos.

North Korea views front-line ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korean broadcasts and civilian leafleting campaigns as a grave provocation because it bans access to foreign news for most of its 26 million people. North Korea has reacted to past ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korean loudspeaker broadcasts and civilian balloon activities by firing rounds across the border, prompting ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea to return fire, according to ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea.

Earlier Monday, ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea, the United States and Japan issued a joint statement strongly condemning expanding military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. It said the North Korean-Russian moves should be of β€œgrave concern” to efforts to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula, the global non-proliferation regime and support for the Ukraine people.

During a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, last Wednesday, Kim Jong Un and Putin struck a deal requiring each country to and vowed to boost other cooperation. Observers say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War. The U.S. and its partners believe North Korea has been providing Russia with much-needed conventional arms for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.

The ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea-U.S.-Japan statement said the three countries reaffirmed their intention to further boost diplomatic and security cooperation to cope with North Korean threats and prevent an escalation of the situation. It said U.S. commitments to the defense of ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea and Japan β€œremain ironclad.”

Last Saturday, arrived in ΒιΆΉΚΣΖ΅ Korea for a three-way Seoul-Washington-Tokyo military exercise that is expected to begin this month.

North Korea has previously called such joint U.S. military drills an invasion rehearsal and responded with missile tests. North Korea maintains that U.S. hostility forced it to pursue nuclear weapons in self-defense.

Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press

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