Photo: Collected
Seoul has detected multiple parasites in some of the trash-carrying balloons sent by North Korea, the South Korean Unification Ministry said on Monday (24 June).
"Numerous parasites, such as roundworms, whipworms and threadworms, were found in the soil contained in the trash," the unification ministry said in a statement cited by South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The parasites might have originated from human excrement, the ministry added.
The discovery was reportedly based on the results of an examination of 70 trash-filled balloons.
Among the trash sent inside the balloons, South Korean authorities discovered pieces of torn clothes that were identified as items previously delivered to North Korea by a South Korean company.
"It appears that North Korea damaged and sent these previously supplied items to express extreme hostility toward the leaflet campaigns and to highlight the adversarial stance against South Korea," an undisclosed ministerial official was quoted by Yonhap as saying.
In early June, North Korea said it had sent 3,500 air balloons carrying 15 tonnes of trash to South Korea in a response to the recent increase in cases of South Korean activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North. The South Korean military said it would resume military activities in the demilitarized border zone and on the islands near North Korea, reversing the commitments made in an inter-Korean military pact.
Messenger/Mumu
