A South Korean activist said Thursday that he launched more huge balloons carrying COVID-19 relief items toward North Korea. It was just days after the North vowed to crack down on such activities and claimed they were a source of the virus.
South Korean experts question North Korea’s efforts to blame South Korean balloons. Therefore, suggesting that the goal may be to incite anti-South Korean sentiments and alleviate public outrage over the outbreak’s handling. The coronavirus is spread by people in close contact inhaling airborne droplets. The experts agree that spreading the virus from surfaces is nearly impossible.
Park Sang-hak: His group launched 20 balloons from a South Korean border town
Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said his group launched 20 balloons from a South Korean border town. It carried 20,000 masks and tens of thousands of vitamin C and fever-reducing tablets on Wednesday. He claimed to have sent similar aid items across the inter-Korean border by balloon twice last month.
One of the balloons carried a large placard condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for holding South Korean activists responsible for the virus outbreak. However, Park claimed that the balloons did not contain what he had previously sent for years. It has small but numerous anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets, one-dollar bills from the United States. Also, it has USB sticks containing information about the outside world.
He stated that he will now concentrate on sending medical supplies to North Koreans, who are in desperate need of them.
Since North Korea admitted to an omicron outbreak in May. Its state media has reported that approximately 4.8 million North Koreans have developed fevers. But only 74 have died. Experts question the figures’ veracity and speculate that the disclosure of an extremely low death toll was staged to protect Kim’s political reputation.
Alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons
Last week, state media reported that the outbreak had been traced to residents of a border town who had contact with “alien things.” The authorities had been ordered to “vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons.”
However, some outside experts believe the omicron variant entered North Korea. It happened when the country temporarily reopened its northern border with China to freight traffic in January. According to observers, the virus spread further when many North Koreans visited Pyongyang in April. As it was for massive public events commemorating state anniversaries and then returned home.
“Kim Jong Un is the one who spread COVID-19.” But, because public opinion is so negative, he’s attempting to pin all of the blame on us,” Park said. “How can COVID-19 materials spread?”
Park is on trial for a previous leafleting campaign under a contentious South Korean law that criminalized such activities last year. Authorities, according to Park, have not contacted him about his recent ballooning activities. Police said on Thursday that they are looking into Park’s recent balloon launches. But they refused to provide any further information.
North Korea is extremely sensitive to outside attempts to criticize Kim’s rule to people who have limited access to foreign sources of information. North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory in 2014. It destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in the North in 2020. In order to express its displeasure with leafleting.
