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South Korea’s busiest airport was forced temporarily to halt operations after North Korea resumed launching balloons carrying bags of rubbish and suspected human waste over the border.
Incheon International Airport, which serves the South Korean capital of Seoul, closed its three runways after a balloon landed on the tarmac near a passenger terminal early on Wednesday. More balloons were spotted in the surrounding area, according to airport officials.
Several flights due to land at Incheon between 1.46am and 4.44am were diverted to other Korean airports, while a Chinese cargo flight was diverted to the city of Yantai in China. Incheon airport, which is about 40km from the border with North Korea, later resumed operations.
South Korean armed forces said about 100 balloons launched from North Korea had landed on Tuesday and Wednesday, as Pyongyang resumed a campaign it described last month as retaliation for balloons sent over the border from the South.
The latest launches came amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang and signed a far-reaching strategic partnership with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The agreement drew condemnation from South Korea and Japan, and raised concerns about deepening co-operation between Moscow and Pyongyang.
North Korea also launched an unidentified ballistic missile on Wednesday morning, which appeared to explode, while attempting to conduct manoeuvres over the Sea of Japan.
The International Civil Aviation Authority, a UN body, last week condemned Pyongyang’s efforts between May 29 and June 2 this year to jam GPS signals near the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea. The South Korean government claimed the signal jamming had affected “500 civilian aircraft from 20 countries”.
Pyongyang has long denounced Seoul for allowing activists — many of them North Korean escapees — to launch balloons into the North carrying items including anti-regime propaganda leaflets, electronic devices, medication and Bibles.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s leader, last week criticised what she described as the “repulsive defector scum” sending leaflets into the North.
The South Korean government revealed earlier this week that some of the North Korean balloons had carried parasites from what appeared to be human faeces as well as dirty socks and underwear. Seoul has responded by restarting the use of giant loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda and pop songs across the border.
“Analysis by specialised agencies revealed the presence of numerous parasites such as roundworms, whipworms and threadworms in the soil contained in the filth,” South Korea’s unification ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The ministry added that the threadbare clothing gathered from the balloons showed the “severe hardships” endured by the North Korean people. It also noted that the items included some that were “prohibited by North Korean authorities as anti-socialist goods” such as skinny jeans and clothing with counterfeit images of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty.
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