In a statement, Kim Yo Jong, deputy head of the Communication and Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), also warned that the DPRK will respond “in a multiplied manner” to each new provocation of this kind.

I don’t know why they are making such a ruckus if we just did the same job as they did,”Jong said after recalling that the South Korean Army Chiefs of Staff Board accused the DPRK of contravening international laws and threatening the safety of its people by launching trash balloons.

The influential sister of the leader of the country, Kim Jong Un, also asked with irony if the direction of the balloons is what decides whether this is an act protected by international laws and freedom of expression, since Seoul approves them when they fly to the north and not when they fly to the south.

She recalled, on the other hand, that DPRK Vice Minister of National Defense Kim Kang Il warned past Saturday that his country would follow the “tit-for-tat” pattern whenever a similar incident pops up.

On May 10, some 20 large trash balloons launched from South Korea burst into the DPRK’s western airspace containing some 300,000 leaflets calling for the destabilization of the state and contents insulting to the general secretary of the WPK and chairman of the State Affairs Committee.

This kind of “ideological bombing” is a long-standing practice that the South Korean justice system has not prevented under the pretext of democracy and freedom of speech.

Kim Yo Jong said that, consequently, the balloon launch was a “very brazen” act that confirmed once again “how clumsy and cynical the South Korean gang is.”

They should continue to pick up the garbage thrown by our people, appreciating it as a “gift” full of sincerity sent to the false defenders of liberal democracy and freedom of speech, he declared.

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