Shit bombs over Korea
Were it not for the gravity of the tense situation in the China Sea and the mistrust that reigns in the Japan-Korea-China triangle, the latest episodes of the confrontation between the two Koreas would be more likely to be laughed at and laughed at than to be the subject of brainy military staff meetings. Seen from this hemisphere, it would seem as if the unforgettable humorist Gila had burst into the middle of the hostilities between the two countries, divided by the 38th parallel.
It turns out that on Saturday, North Korea launched hundreds of balloons over its southern neighbour - at least 330, according to the authorities in Seoul - full of rubbish and especially human and animal excrement. All of these bombs exploded at various points in the South Korean capital and other adjacent towns, littering the areas around the impacts. The population, well trained in the warnings to counter enemy attacks, refrained from touching or digging through the wreckage of such devices because of the possibility that, along with so much shit, the North Koreans had also introduced toxic substances or viruses capable of spreading and infecting people who no longer miss anything in the inter-Korean struggle.
Saturday's offensive was the largest, in terms of the number of devices of this unique type, launched by Pyongyang in the last two weeks. Two successive waves of such shit-filled bombs had set off alarm bells, despite the fact that they bore allusive inscriptions that marked them as ‘sincere congratulations’. The South Korean army's specialised decontamination units, far from immediately discarding the contents, have proceeded to an exhaustive analysis, which, according to their spokesmen, will serve not only to ascertain the degree of hardship and starvation that Kim Jong-un's regime is going through, through human and animal faeces, but also the consumption habits, for example the large number of stubby cigarette butts included in the balloons.
Oh Se-Hoon, mayor of Seoul, has called it ‘another low-level provocation by North Korea against our civilian areas’. Their retaliation was swift, and on Sunday they re-installed powerful sound cannons near the border to blast propaganda to those in the vicinity of the demilitarised zone.
Various South Korean civil organisations have proceeded on their own, but with the tacit consent of their authorities, to launch balloons over the northern territories, loaded not only with pamphlets against the North Korean regime and the ‘beloved leader’ Kim Jong-un, but also small radios with synchronised programmes as well as USB memory sticks containing speeches by South Korean President Yeon Suk Yeol, sacks of rice and TV series, all against the backdrop of the profound differences in freedoms and quality of life on either side of the border between the two Koreas.
According to AFP, South Korea's Constitutional Court last year struck down a 2020 law criminalising the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, arguing that such action limited freedom of expression. As a result, there is now no legal basis for the Seoul government to prevent the sending of such propaganda-laden devices to North Korea.
In the heat of these events, various South Korean activist organisations, largely made up of defectors from the North's regime, have admitted to acting on their own, throwing hundreds of plastic bottles containing rice, South Korean money and USB sticks into the maritime border area to be picked up by the North's fishermen. Kim Jong-un has reacted by threatening to send a hundred times more ‘shit bombs’ for every propaganda balloon sent by the South.
On a more serious note, President Yoon Suk Yeol has proceeded with the full suspension of the military détente agreement agreed with Pyonyang in 2018. Thus, the war never ended by a peace agreement between the two Koreas continues, and now hostilities seem to smell more than ever.