(2nd LD) N. Korea sends trash-carrying balloons to S. Korea for 3rd day

North Korea on Wednesday sent balloons presumed to be carrying trash toward South Korea again, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, in what marked its third consecutive balloon campaign this week alone. The JCS said an unspecified number of balloons appeared to be travelling in a southeastern direction from the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul. It advised the public to not touch fallen balloons and report them to the military or police. With the latest launch, North Korea is estimated to have launched more than 2,000 trash-carrying balloons over seven occasions since May 28 in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors and activists in the South. North Korea has strongly opposed the propaganda campaign, out of concerns that an influx of outside information could threaten the leadership of its regime. Earlier in the day, the JCS said North Korea has launched more than 250 trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea overnight, with some 100 bal loons landing mostly in Seoul and the northern area of Gyeonggi Province. An analysis of retrieved balloons, largely carrying pieces of scrap paper, showed they did not contain any harmful substances, it said. A JCS official told reporters that a single trash bundle is estimated to be carrying more than 7,000 pieces of low-quality paper. Due to the North's balloon launch, domestic and international flights were suspended or delayed for about three hours at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, from 1:46 a.m. Wednesday. In response to the balloon campaign, South Korea blared anti-Pyongyang broadcasts through its border loudspeakers on June 9 for the first time in six years. But the broadcasts have not continued in an apparent bid to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control. The JCS said it remains ready to conduct loudspeaker broadcasts at any time and warned the implementation of such operations would depend on North Korea's actions. Earlier in the day, the North also launched a ballistic missile toward the East Sea, but the launch apparently ended in failure as the missile exploded in mid-air, according to the JCS official. Source: Yonhap News Agency