South Korea restarts blaring propaganda broadcasts to retaliate against North's trash balloon flying

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North’s latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it used front-line loudspeakers to blare anti-Pyongyang broadcasts over the border between Thursday evening and Friday morning. It said the South Korean military turned on loudspeakers again later Friday as it found out the North was preparing to fly more balloons.

The broadcasts were the first of their kind in about 40 days. The contents of the broadcasts were not immediately known, but previous ones last month reportedly included K-pop songs, weather forecasts and news on Samsung, the biggest South Korean company, as well as outside criticism of the North’s missile program and its crackdown on foreign video.

The South Korean broadcasts could trigger an angry response from North Korea because it is extremely sensitive to any outside attempt to undermine its political system. In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting the South to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.

South Korea's military said North Korea must be blamed for heightened tensions because it ignored South Korea's repeated warnings and continued its "despicable” balloon campaigns. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the South Korean military will conduct loudspeaker broadcasts in a fuller manner and other stronger steps if North Korea continues provocations like balloon launches.

South Korea’s military earlier said North Korea's launch on Thursday afternoon was its eighth balloon campaign since late May. About 200 North Korean balloons were found on South Korean soil as of Friday morning, and they mostly carried waste papers, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Previous North Korean-flown balloons carried scraps of cloth, cigarette butts, waste batteries and even manure, though they caused no major damages in South Korea. North Korea said they were sent in response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets to the North via their own balloons.

South Korea responded by suspending a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea, conducting propaganda broadcasts for two hours on June 9 and front-line live-fire military drills at border areas.

Earlier this week, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hinted at flying rubbish-carrying balloons again or launching new countermeasures, saying South Korean balloons have been found again at border and other areas in North Korea. In her statement Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong warned that South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price.” That raised concerns that North Korea could stage physical provocations, rather than balloon launches.

South Korea’s military said Wednesday it has boosted its readiness to brace for any provocation by North Korea. It said North Korea may fire at incoming South Korean balloons across the border or floating mines downriver.

It wasn’t immediately known whether groups in South Korea have recently scattered leaflets in North Korea. For years, activist groups led by North Korean defectors have used helium-filled balloons to drop anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks containing K-pop music and South Korean dramas and U.S. dollar bills in the North.

North Korea views such activities as a serious security threat and challenge to its ban on foreign news for most of its 26 million people. In 2020, North Korea destroyed an unoccupied South Korean-built liaison office on its territory in a furious response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2014, North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.

Tensions between the Koreas have heightened in recent years because of North Korea’s missile tests and the expansion of U.S-South Korean military drills that North Korea calls invasion rehearsals. Experts say North Korea’s expanding ties with Russia could embolden Kim Jong Un to stage bigger provocations, particularly ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

North Korea’s state media said Friday that Kim met a visiting Russian delegation led by Vice Defense Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko. During the meeting, Kim stressed the need for the two countries’ armies to unite more firmly to defend international peace and justice, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

In June, Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang and signed a deal requiring each country to provide aid to the other if it is attacked and vowed to boost other cooperation. Analysts say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.

Visitors look at a map of the two Koreas borderland at the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, July 19, 2024. South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North's latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A photo showing North Korea's missiles is displayed at the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, July 19, 2024. South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North's latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Visitors watch North Korean side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, July 19, 2024. South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North's latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Visitors watch North Korean side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, July 19, 2024. South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North's latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

FILE - A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. South Korea says North Korea has launched balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on Thursday July 18, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 23, 2013, file photo, a North Korean soldier looks at the southern side through a pair of binoculars at the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea. South Korea said Friday, July 19, 2024, it has restarted anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the border in response to North Korea’s resumption of trash-carrying balloon launches. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

FILE - South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024. South Korea said Friday, July 19, 2024, it has restarted anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the border in response to North Korea’s resumption of trash-carrying balloon launches. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

South Korean army soldiers pass by the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, July 19, 2024. South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North's latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A North Korean military guard post, top, and a South Korean post, bottom, are seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, July 19, 2024. South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North's latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

FILE - A worker dismantles loudspeakers that set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, on May 1, 2018. South Korea said Friday, July 19, 2024, it has restarted anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the border in response to North Korea’s resumption of trash-carrying balloon launches. (Kim Hong-Ji/Pool Photo via AP, File)

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, July 19, 2024. South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North's latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lamar Jackson insisted the Baltimore Ravens were not seeking revenge after the Kansas City Chiefs beat them in the AFC title game seven months ago, denying him the opportunity to play for his first Super Bowl championship.

It sure looked as if he was trying to get some anyway Thursday night.

Jackson threw for 273 yards and a touchdown and ran for 122 yards, gamely rallying Baltimore from a late 10-point deficit against the two-time and defending NFL champions. And it looked for a moment as if Jackson had at least forced overtime when he hit Isaiah Likely in the back of the end zone with no time left in raucous Arrowhead Stadium to complete the comeback.

The final play immediately went to a video review, though, and the evidence was clear: The tight end's toe landed on the endline, putting him out of bounds. The pass was incomplete. The game was over. And the disappointment quickly set in.

It was a 27-20 loss, the fifth for Jackson in six tries against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, and one that could only have been upstaged by the 17-10 loss that the Ravens endured on a cold January night with the Super Bowl in their sights.

“I believe everyone in our program — coaches, trainers, equipment guys, cafeteria women and men, and definitely the players,” Jackson said. “For us to lose to those guys in the way we lost, even though I don’t want to do it, I can’t be mad at my guys.”

Jackson has long been one of the NFL's premier quarterbacks, winning his second MVP award after last season. And he has not only proven his worth in big games but against some of the league's best quarterbacks, going 2-0 against Tom Brady before his retirement and winning four of his five games against Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

Yet he can't seem to beat Mahomes and the Chiefs, no matter what magic he brings to the field.

For most of the NFL's opener Thursday, Jackson was having another night against them to forget. His rebuilt offensive line was called for illegal formation three times in the first seven plays, and it broke down completely two series later, when Jackson was strip-sacked by Chris Jones deep in his own territory to set up an easy field goal for the Chiefs.

“Every time we almost had an explosive play, we had a penalty right after that,” Jackson said. “It's hard to get in the groove.”

He finally found his groove over the final two series, when Jackson began to play some sandlot-style football.

First, he a 12-play, 56-yard drive to set up Justin Tucker's field goal, closing the Ravens within a touchdown with 4:54 left in the game. And when the league's No. 1 scoring defense last season forced a quick punt, Jackson had one more opportunity.

He kept going to Likely, who had 111 yards receiving and a touchdown, and Jackson used his feet when he needed to, including a scramble on third-and-2 that gave the Ravens a fresh set of downs. Three plays later, he spied Rashod Bateman streaking down the Kansas City sideline for a 38-yard completion that put them at the Chiefs' 10-yard line with 19 seconds left.

“I thought his last drive was great,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

Jackson's first shot to the end zone was a throw-away with nobody open, but Jackson appeared to miss Zay Flowers open in the back of it on the next play. With one last shot with four seconds to go, Jackson found himself under pressure, yet found enough space to keep the play alive and spot Likely coming open in the back of the end zone.

The throw was a bit high, but Likely thought he had made the catch — as did Jackson, who turned to see Harbaugh signaling for the Baltimore offense to remain on the field for a 2-point conversion that could have won the game.

The play had gone to video review, though, and the Ravens never got that opportunity.

“I felt that we did a great job,” Jackson said, “but you know, just coming down and the red zone, 10-yard line — whatever.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson runs with the ball during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) scrambles as Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (98) defends during the first half of an NFL football game Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) runs with the ball as Kansas City Chiefs safety Bryan Cook, right, and linebacker Leo Chenal (54) defend during the second half of an NFL football game Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) scrambles as Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal defends during the second half of an NFL football game Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)