Photo : YONHAP News
The South Korean military assessed that North Korea is assumed to have spent enough money to purchase over 970 tons of rice worth some 550 million won, or around 408-thousand U.S. dollars, for its people in 22 rounds of trash balloon deliveries south of the border.
In policy briefing documents submitted for a parliamentary audit on Tuesday, the defense ministry said Pyongyang is floating the trash balloons as a means of a low-cost, high efficiency “grey zone” provocation.
The ministry said the North is presumed to be seeking to end anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflet activity by defector groups in the South by increasing the South Korean military’s fatigue and exacerbating discord within South Korean society.
The ministry said Pyongyang is presumed to be continuing work to lay mines and build barriers along the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ) in accordance with a hostile “two-state” system.
Seoul also assessed the North’s recent unveiling of its uranium enrichment facility to be part of highlighting its status as a nuclear power state aimed at increasing its bargaining power against the U.S.