North and South Korea continue to escalate the propaganda war along one of the world's most heavily guarded borders. A new shipment of scrap balloons from the closed North Korea is now to be answered with thundering loudspeakers on the South Korean side.
Loud broadcasts across the border are an old trick that South Korea is now dusting off.
"We will install loudspeakers directed at North Korea today and start broadcasting," it says in a press release from South Korea's leadership on Sunday.
The Seoul government is placing the blame for the escalation entirely on North Korea. Earlier in the day, the Pyongyang regime had again sent balloons filled with trash over the border, according to South Korean military.
About 330 balloons are said to have been sent since Saturday evening. Around 80 have been found on South Korean territory on Sunday morning. They contained trash but no hazardous substances were detected, according to the military. Earlier, the balloons had been loaded with, among other things, feces, which had raised concerns about the spread of disease.
About a week ago, North Korea announced that the balloon attacks would temporarily cease, but threatened with a new flow of balloons if South Korea did not stop peppering North Korea with leaflets.
Last Thursday, a South Korean activist group said that 10 large balloons had been sent over the closed country filled with USB sticks with K-pop songs and 200,000 leaflets with messages against dictator Kim Jong-Un.