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North Korea floated hundreds of balloons filled with trash and feces over its southern border.
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The country had vowed retaliation after South Korean activists sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.
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The North’s balloons contained fertilizer, NBC reported, but no human feces.
North Korea flew balloons filled with trash and feces toward South Korea last week, officials in Seoul said.
The obnoxious floating orbs were in apparent retaliation against South Korean activists who had flown anti-Pyongyang leaflets and USB drives containing K-pop music across the border.
Days before the balloons landed in South Korea, a North Korean official vowed retaliation through “paper and dirt,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
The South Korean military discovered the balloons near the border on Tuesday and told residents to stay indoors, the Journal said.
About 260 balloons were eventually found — the largest number ever sent, the Yonhap News Agency reported, citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The countries have been arguing for years with messages sent back and forth via balloons.
North Korea’s latest barrage of balloons contained plastic, batteries, shoe parts and manure, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said, according to Yonhap.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry confirmed to NBC the presence of fertilizer and not human feces — although the ministry said North Korea had sent human feces in 2016.
The latest skirmish took place after North Korea failed to launch a spy satellite on Monday, which exploded in mid-air.
South Korean media reported that Russia helped with the effort, with some of its technicians entering the country before the failed launch.
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