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A North Korean balloon carrying a bag full of trash is seen here having landed in Incheon. (courtesy of Incheon Fire Services)

North Korea launched its fifth wave of waste balloons over the inter-Korean border on Monday night, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

At 9:26 pm on Monday, the Joint Chiefs sent a mass text to journalists saying that the North was launching what were presumed to be waste-carrying balloons again. 

“Due to the wind blowing to the northwest, the balloons are moving toward northern Gyeonggi Province, and from there some are moving southeast,” the text added. 

“The public should be aware of objects falling from the sky. If anybody discovers a balloon, please do not approach it but call the police or a nearby military base,” the Joint Chiefs advised. 

The Seoul metropolitan government issued a mass text at 10 pm saying, “North Korea has launched waste balloons that have made their way into Seoul airspace.”  

On Thursday, Fighters for a Free North Korea, a group of defectors from North Korea who have taken to activism, announced that they had launched 20 balloons filled with information leaflets, flash drives, and US$1 bills, from around 10 pm to midnight. 

Kim Yo-jong, the politically powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued a statement via the Korean Central News Agency the next day, saying, “The border area of the DPRK was again littered with dirty wastepaper and things.”

“It is natural that there would be something trouble to happen as they did again what they had been urged not to do,” Kim added, hinting at another round of North Korean balloon launches. 

Kim referred to the defectors as “human scum” that “would be condemned by [the] population of the ROK” — that is, South Korea. 

Prior to this latest launch, North Korea conducted four rounds of waste balloon launches from May 28 to June 9, after which Pyongyang announced it would conduct more launches if it saw any more leaflet balloons from the South. 

The South Korean military responded to the balloon launches by resuming loudspeaker broadcasts on June 9, but no additional broadcasts have been conducted since. It remains to be seen how South Korean authorities will respond to the latest waste balloon launches.

By Park Min-hee, senior staff writer

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