South Korea accused North Korea on Wednesday of sending a large number of balloons across their heavily fortified border to drop objects including trash and excrement, calling the act "base and dangerous". - REUTERS
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00:00 North Korea sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and excrement to South Korea on Wednesday.
00:07 Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader, said the balloons were gifts of sincerity
00:14 for South Koreans who "cry for freedom of expression."
00:18 South Korean military's Explosive Ordnance Unit and Chemical and Biological Warfare Response
00:24 Team were deployed to inspect and collect the objects.
00:28 Residents like Lee Soo-yoon received an alert warning them to keep away and report any sightings
00:35 to authorities.
00:36 "It was so creepy and scary that the balloon might have fallen because North Korea might
00:44 have had a specific target.
00:50 Everyone was so scared at that moment.
00:53 I wondered what would have happened to us if there was not just garbage but viruses
00:57 or chemicals."
01:02 More than 260 balloons have been detected as of Wednesday afternoon.
01:08 And most of them have landed on the ground, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of
01:13 Staff.
01:14 Photos released by the South's military showed balloons with plastic bags tied to them and
01:20 trash strewn around some collapsed balloons.
01:23 Yonhap News Agency said some contained animal feces.
01:28 An official at Seoul's presidential office said the North might want to test the South's
01:33 reaction but vowed to respond calmly.
01:37 Sending balloons to the North has been a tactic regularly used by South Korean activists.
01:43 They are often led by defectors escaped from North Korea.
01:48 North Korea has reacted angrily to those balloons, which usually carry anti-Pyongyang leaflets,
01:54 mini radios, food and USB memory sticks with K-pop music videos and dramas.
02:01 The recent incident comes days after North Korea denounced balloons sent from the South,
02:07 calling them "dirty things" and "a dangerous provocation."
02:11 North Korea vowed on Wednesday to send more balloons to South Korea, dozens of times the
02:17 number it said South Korea had sent into its territory, according to state media KCNA.
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