사회과학대소식
[사과대 소식] 북한 쓰레기 풍선이 또 정부청사를 강타했습니다. [뉴욕타임즈]
A North Korean Trash Balloon Hits a Seoul Government Compound, Again
Reporting from Seoul
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Trash from a balloon sent by North Korea was found in a government complex in Seoul on Friday morning, more than a day after one of the North’s balloon launches was last detected, adding to concerns about South Korea’s potential vulnerability to the provocative new tactic.
Military officials said they had recovered the debris from the parking lot of the complex, which houses various ministries in the heart of Seoul, a city of 10 million. They said it had probably come from a balloon launch that the military detected by radar on Wednesday evening, and that it was unclear when it had landed on the compound.
It was at least the third time that debris from one of the North’s balloons had been found in a South Korean government complex.
“The fact that the trash was found there a few days after the launch is concerning from a security perspective,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “It would be a whole different game if they weren’t trash but biological weapons or hazardous materials.”
Since May, North Korea has launched thousands of balloons tied to bags of trash, about 10 percent of which have reached South Korean soil, Mr. Kim said. The North has called it a response to South Korean activists who have been sending propaganda into the North by balloon for years.
South Korea, which technically has been at war with the North for decades, has advanced armaments and exports weapons to other countries. But it has been frustrated and stymied by North Korea’s low-tech balloon tactic, though so far it has essentially been a nuisance, with no hazardous material found in any of the payloads.
The North has launched about 20 batches of balloons. Though the South Korean military has been able to detect the launches and determine how many balloons are involved, it has intercepted just a fraction of them, according to the military officials.
They said it was essentially impossible to track all the balloons because of their sheer number, their unpredictable paths and the vastness of the area they cover. Balloons have fallen into the ocean, floated back to North Korea and landed on remote South Korean mountains to be found days later by hikers.
Of the 160 balloons launched on Wednesday, about 30 are known to have landed in South Korea, officials said.
A roof in the same complex where the trash was found on Friday had been hit by a North Korean balloon in May, in one of the first launches. In July, a balloon struck the compound that includes the president’s office. The debris discovered on Friday consisted of everyday trash and paper scraps, officials said.
Mr. Kim said there were inevitable technological challenges to intercepting balloons, noting that the Chinese spy balloon that alarmed many Americans last year when it floated over the United States for days had to be shot down with a missile from a fighter jet.
Mr. Kim suggested that the best way for the South to stop the launches would be to stop the activists on its own soil from sending propaganda balloons north. South Korea has tried before to rein in the activists, but their launches continue.
“It’s important for the two Koreas to develop some mutual restraint,” Mr. Kim said. “The cycle of North and South Korea sending balloons to each other has to stop now.”
