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North Korea floated another 720 waste-filled balloons into South Korea, according to local reports.
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Pyongyang says it is in retaliation for activists sending anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.
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Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, called the balloons “sincere gifts.”
North Korea launched another 720 balloons over the border with South Korea on Saturday evening, carrying plastic bags full of cigarette butts, bits of cloth and waste paper.
Pyongyang says it was in retaliation for activists who sent anti-North Korea leaflets and USB drives containing K-pop music across the border.
This was reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap 720 balloons with waste were driven into the country, with Reuters citing a figure of 600.
Since last Tuesday, North Korea has sent between 850 and nearly 1,000 balloons through the demilitarized zone, spreading debris in the capital Seoul and other parts of the country.
The garbage balloons add to a recent series of provocative moves by North Korea, including the failed launch of spy satellites on Monday and a barrage of short-range rocket launches on Thursday, seen as an attempt to demonstrate the country’s ability to to preemptively attack its neighboring country.
The South Korean military advised citizens not to touch the balloons and warned of possible danger, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
The government in Seoul sent text message alerts informing the public that unidentified objects from North Korea had been detected in the skies over the city and the military was responding, according to the Associated Press.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Sunday denounced North Korea’s launch of garbage balloons as a “depraved provocation,” adding that such actions were “unacceptable to the international community,” according to the Yonhap News Agency.
“The government will treat them calmly and focus on ensuring national security,” Han said.
Sung Tae-yoon, director of national policy in the presidential office, said: “North Korea’s ballistic missile provocations, GPS jamming and waste balloons harm our people and threaten our security.”
South Korea’s military has deployed chemical rapid response and explosive ordnance disposal teams to recover the debris from about 260 North Korean balloons discovered across the country on Tuesday evening.
According to the military, this first barrage of balloons contained dung, but no hazardous materials such as chemical, biological or radioactive materials.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense confirmed the presence of fertilizer to NBC Newsand not human feces, as previous reports speculated — although the newspaper said North Korea had sent human feces in 2016.
Some balloons were fitted with timers, suggesting they were intended to release the waste into the air, AP reported.
In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, called the balloons “sincere gifts” for South Korea’s “goblins of democracy who clamor for the guarantee of freedom of expression.” , a statement from the state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday.
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