North Korea is literally fighting dirty in its latest battle with its southern neighbor.
For the past few weeks, the communist nation has been floating balloons filled with leaflets denouncing South Korean President Park Geun-hye across the border, according to South Korean newspaper Korea Joongang Daily. The balloons had timers that were intended to make them detonate midair and scatter their cargo, but some timers failed to go off, The New York Times reports.
In balloons that dropped to the ground, Korea Joongang Daily says that officials found trash like cigarette butts and used toilet paper mixed in with the leaflets.
“When we opened up a bundle dropped on the ground, we found plastic bags filled with leaflets mixed with trash,” a South Korean military official said. The official added that investigations have confirmed there is no hazardous biochemical content.
The more than 100,000 leaflets sent to the South denounce the U.S. in addition to Park. Both countries have condemned North Korea’s nuclear tests.
Pyongyang claimed it successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb in early January, which sparked international alarm and worsened ongoing tensions with South Korea. The United Nations announced it would consider taking “significant measures” to address the test. “This act is profoundly destabilizing for regional security and seriously undermines international non-proliferation efforts. I condemn it unequivocally,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Both the U.S. and China, North Korea’s closest ally, backed the U.N’s condemnation, which could possibly lead to further sanctions. “Kim Jong Un’s actions are reckless, and they are dangerous,” Secretary of State John Kerry said. “Whether or not he achieved the explosion of a hydrogen weapon is not what makes the difference. It’s that he is trying.”
Since the nuclear test, both North and South Korea have cranked up their propaganda efforts. The North’s latest strategy for antagonizing its neighbor comes after the South used loudspeakers to blast K-pop music across the border. The music is prohibited in the North.
On Tuesday, North Korea announced it plans to launch a rocket with a satellite attached to it in the near future. Pyongyang issued an alert to the International Maritime Organization, noting the launch would occur between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25.