How much does Kim Jong Un dislike K-Pop? Apparently, enough to send balloons full of feces into South Korea.
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On Wednesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff shared that the North Korean leader floated over 260 balloons filled with feces and trash across the border, calling them "gifts of sincerity."
The move is reportedly in retaliation to defectors and activists in South Korea who have been sending medicine, money, and USB sticks of K-Pop and television programs over the border via inflatables.
"By putting rubbish and miscellaneous objects into balloons, they seem to want to test how our people would react and whether our government is indeed disrupted, and apart from direct provocations, how psychological warfare and small-scale complex threats would play out in our country," an official from Seoul's presidential office said in a statement.
Dr. Immanuel Kim, Professor and Department Chair of the Korea Foundation at George Washington University, said this was a tick-for-tack strategy.
"We've never seen anything like this before, so we don't know what to expect in the future. We don't know if they're going to continue doing this or if it's just a one-time thing," Dr. Kim said. He thinks the balloons are just the beginning.
"I think it's more of like a drone technology that they're really trying to hone in," he said. "I don't think it's just the balloons that we need to be focused on, but a larger technological advancement from North Korea."
Still, Dr. Kim said there is "nothing to be alarmed about."
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