North Korea sends trash balloons toward South Korea again

North Korea has floated about 20 balloons carrying trash toward South Korea, and some 10 objects from the balloons were found in the border county of Cheorwon, the South Korean military said on 20 October, Sunday.

The joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said the trash-loaded balloons were sent across the border between Saturday night and early Sunday and the fallen objects were household waste, such as paper and vinyl, and included no hazardous items, Yonhap news agency reported.

The number of dropped items does not necessarily correspond to the number of balloons, as each balloon, which measures approximately 2 to 3 m in diametre and 3 to 4 m in length, usually contains several smaller bags.

Since late May, the North has launched more than 5,000 trash balloons to South Korea in retaliation against anti-Pyongyang leaflets launched by activists and North Korean defectors in the South.

Meanwhile, reports have also emerged of South Korea capturing satellite images of North Korean troop movement to Russia. One of the three pictures that South Korea's intelligence agency disclosed as evidence of North Korea's troop deployment to Russia was captured by a satellite that the South has been operating, a government source said on Sunday.

Two of the three photos were attributed to Airbus, a global satellite imagery provider, but the third was not attributed when the National Intelligence Service (NIS) presented them on Friday while confirming the North's deployment of troops to Russia for its war in Ukraine, Yonhap news agency reported.

Disclosing the satellite images, the NIS said that the North has decided to send around 12,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and has already deployed 1,500 special forces troops to Vladivostok. "The unattributed photo was taken by a satellite that we've been operating," the source said.

That picture appears to have been taken by a satellite equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can collect data regardless of the weather by using remote sensing systems.

South Korea has been operating multiple SAR-equipped satellites, including a military reconnaissance satellite, though images taken by military satellites are usually not included in government press releases as they are classified as military secrets.

South Korea has been closely tracking North Korea's movements using satellites operated by the government and the military amid growing speculation about deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.