Trash dropped by a North Korean balloon falls on South Korea’s presidential compound

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Trash carried by at least one North Korean balloon fell on the South Korean presidential compound on Wednesday, raising worries about the security of key South Korean facilities during North Korean provocations.

The rubbish that landed on the presidential compound in central Seoul contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt, South Korea’s presidential security service said. While North Korea likely lacks sophisticated technology to drop balloons on specific targets, some experts say South Korea should shoot down incoming North Korean balloons next time to protect major facilities because they might contain hazardous substances in the future.

North Korea's latest balloon launches came days after South Korea boosted its broadcasts of K-pop songs and propaganda messages across the two countries' heavily armed border. Their tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns are inflaming tensions, with the rivals threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences.

Seoul officials earlier said North Korea used the direction of winds to fly balloons toward South Korea, but some of the past balloons had timers that were likely meant to pop the bags of trash in midair.

The security service gave no further details about the rubbish found at the presidential compound. It refused to disclose whether President Yoon Suk Yeol was at the compound when the balloons were flying over his office, a no-fly zone in South Korea.

If North Korea is found to have used timers or any other device to deliberately dump trash on the presidential office, it would invite a strong response by South Korea. But experts say dropping balloons on selected ground targets requires advanced technology and that North Korea would certainly lack such an ability.

"Some of (the hundreds of balloons) launched by North Korea landed on the presidential compound by coincidence. North Korea has no technology to precisely drop balloons at certain targets,” said Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul.

Jung said that a GPS navigation device and a power system would need to be attached to a balloon to make it fall on certain sites and that North Korea doesn't possess such balloons. He said North Korea likely wanted the balloons to fall on Seoul, about an hour's drive from the border, after calculating factors like the weight of the trash bags tied to the balloons, the volume of air in the balloons and the weather conditions.

Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea, said strong winds in Seoul would also make it impossible for North Korea to target certain places with balloons.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier Wednesday that North Korea had resumed floating balloons across the border, the 10th such launch since late May.

The more than 2,000 North Korean balloons discovered in South Korea in the past weeks carried wastepaper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure. North Korea has said it was responding to South Korean activists who have scattered political leaflets across the border via their own balloons.

North Korea’s balloons haven’t caused any major damage but have raised security jitters among people worried it could use such balloons to drop chemical and biological agents.

South Korea has avoided shooting at the balloons because of possible damage caused by falling bullets and the chance that the balloons might contain hazardous substances.

Lee said South Korea should still shoot down North Korean balloons in border areas because attacking them over the populous Seoul area would be too risky if they contain dangerous items like biological agents. But there are worries that doing so could cause skirmishes with North Korea. Jung said South Korea could use recently developed laser weapons to intercept North Korean balloons.

Experts say North Korea considers leafleting activities by South Korean civilian groups a major threat to its efforts to stop the inflow of foreign news and maintain its authoritarian rule. In furious responses to past South Korean leafleting, North Korea destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in its territory in 2020 and fired at incoming balloons in 2014.

South Korea said Sunday it was ramping up its anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers at all major sites along the land border because the North was continuing its launches of trash-carrying balloons. South Korea restarted its loudspeaker broadcasts last Thursday for the first time in about 40 days in retaliation for North Korea's previous balloon activities.

Observers say the propaganda broadcasts can demoralize front-line North Korean troops and residents. In 2015, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border in anger over South Korea's restart of propaganda broadcasts, prompting the South to return fire.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the current South Korean broadcasts include K-pop songs and news on South Korean economic development. South Korean media reported the broadcasts also contained news on the recent defection of a senior North Korean diplomat and called the planting of land mines by North Korean soldiers at the border “hellish, slave-like lives.”

South Korea has an estimated 40 loudspeakers — 24 stationary and 16 mobile ones. South Korea's military said Monday it was operating all of the fixed loudspeakers and plans to use the mobile loudspeakers as well.

North Korea hasn't officially responded to the South Korean propaganda broadcasts. But last week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, threatened new countermeasures against South Korean civilian leafleting, warning that South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price” for their actions.

South Korean army soldiers collect the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Lim Sun-suk//Yonhap via AP)

South Korean army soldiers collect the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Lim Sun-suk//Yonhap via AP)

Balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Visitors watch the North Korea side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Koreans stage a protest demanding stopping of propaganda amid rising tensions between North and South Korea near the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. The signs read: "Stop loudspeakers and leaflets against North Korea." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A visitor takes photos toward the North Korea side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Officers wearing protective gear collect the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Seoul, South Korea. (Park Dong-joo/Yonhap via AP)

South Korean army soldiers wearing protective gear checks the debreis from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Seoul, South Korea. (Park Dong-joo/Yonhap via AP)

A North Korean soldier stands at the North's military guard post as a North Korean flag flutters in the wind, in this view from Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. North Korea flew more balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on Wednesday, Seoul officials said, days after South Korea boosted its frontline broadcasts of K-pop songs and propaganda messages across the rivals' heavily armed border. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

FILE - A North Korean soldier stands at the North's military guard post as a North Korean flag flutters in the wind, seen from Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. South Korea says North Korea has again flown balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the balloons are flying north of Seoul on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, after crossing the border. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

North Korea again flying balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea

North Korea again flying balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea

FILE - A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. North Korea launched more balloons likely carrying rubbish toward South Korea on Sunday, July 21, two days after the South restarted blaring anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the border in retaliation for the North’s repeated balloon campaigns, Seoul officials said.(Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)

A U.S. passenger flight preparing to leave the nation's capital and an incoming military jet received instructions to divert and prevent a possible collision, officials said.

Delta Air Lines Flight 2983 was cleared for takeoff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday around 3:15 p.m., the same time four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon aircraft were inbound, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The jets were heading for a flyover of Arlington National Cemetery when the Delta aircraft received an onboard alert of a nearby aircraft. Air traffic controllers “issued corrective instructions to both aircraft,” according to the FAA, which intends to investigate.

According to a recording of air traffic control communications, Delta's pilot asked, "Was there an actual aircraft about 500 ft below us as we came off of DCA?”

In a recording archived by aviation site LiveATC.net, the controller responded: “Delta 2983, affirmative.”

The Airbus A319 with 131 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants was embarking on a regularly scheduled flight between Reagan and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Delta Airlines said.

The flight left its gate at 2:55 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Minneapolis-St. Paul at 4:36 p.m. local time before the flight crew followed the diversion instructions from the controllers, the airline said.

No injuries were reported.

The Air Force's website describes the T-38 Talon as “a twin-engine, high-altitude, supersonic jet trainer” used by different departments and agencies, including NASA, for various roles including pilot training.

The incident comes just two months after a midair collision above the same airport killed 67 people. The Jan. 29 crash between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter was the deadliest U.S. plane crash in more than two decades. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River, killing everyone aboard.

Associated Press reporter Julie Walker contributed from New York.

FILE - The air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is pictured, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)