SOUTH KOREA threatened today to restart propaganda broadcasts on its border with the North after Pyongyang floated balloons carrying plastic bags of rubbish into Seoul’s territory.

The rubbish balloons, sent on Monday night, were the fifth campaign of such action since late May and are an apparent response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets northwards on balloons.

In a speech yesterday marking the 74th anniversary of the start of the Korean war, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol branded the North’s balloon activities “a despicable and irrational provocation.”