South Korea is tired of flying garbage-laden balloons over its northern border for months. There is no shortage of reasons. What started as a strange trickle of inflatable toys that set off alarm bells in Seoul in May this year has eventually become a full-blown trickle. The South Korean Government estimates that by September North Korea had sent it 5,500 well-baited wastes, and in some cases even manure, forcing it to activate 22 alarms. With this data on the table, the country has moved to provide itself with a special weapon to stop them: “anti-trash balloon” drones.

After all, South Korea worries that what is today seen as waste, dirty paper, packaging, and even fertilizer will pose a much greater threat to its population in the future, such as pathogens or radioactive materials.

Litter “anti-balloon” drones. The concept may sound strange, but that’s exactly what they’re looking to create in South Korea: drones designed to detect, capture and neutralize the thousands of garbage balloons that the government has been denouncing for months as taking from neighboring North Korea.

The news was covered by many media outlets in the country, including veterans. Korea Times. Companies specializing in defense, academics and research-oriented institutions have joined forces to create special unmanned vehicles. Its aim will be to submit a proposal to the Government in the coming months.

Purpose: quick response. Jeonbuk and Hanseo universities, UAM Tech, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (Kaeri), Korean Military Academy and BioLT company have also started this initiative. Kang Eun-ho, director of one of them, explains: “We plan to propose the project to the National Assembly Defense Committee next month, emphasizing the need to study the security threats posed by North Korean garbage balloons and establish a rapid response system.” Organizations that are relevant and responsible in the field of defense.

All for some balloons? Not really. Garbage balloons are no longer a matter of curiosity but have become a headache for the South Korean government. The country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Security estimates that between May and September alone, North Korea sent out more than 5,500 garbage-laden hot air balloons, resulting in 22 warnings.

What’s more, some are equipped with timers that allow them to explode and release their contents. In July, Reuters reported that at least one of them caused a fire atop a building in Gyeonggi province, near the capital. Seoul is scrutinizing them so carefully that it warned in September that if a certain “line” was crossed and resulted in death, the country would not hesitate to respond with “decisive military actions.”

Key: content. However, there is another, if not more important, reason for South Korean officials to closely monitor the drift of balloons. Today they may be full of garbage, even manure, but… What about tomorrow? Korea Times Fears that North Korea could use inflatables to deliver worse contents, such as radioactive substances or pathogens, to its southern neighbor have caused “growing alarm” in the country, he assures.

The same newspaper claims that the military was reluctant to interfere with the balloons during flight for fear of releasing hazardous substances. In a recent study, the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) points out that the most worrying content of balloons to date is feces and the bacteria and microorganisms they contain, which can cause diseases such as cholera. “Instead of focusing on speculative future biochemical attack scenarios, the immediate concern is the management of this feces.”

So what’s on their mind? Although, as Kang Eun-ho admitted, they will have to submit their proposals to Defense, the project’s supporters will already have a more or less accurate idea of ​​​​what South Korea needs. The idea is to create two different types of drones. There will be multi-rotor devices designed to detect and collect balloons and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones, which will be deployed in areas where balloons are currently wreaking havoc.

The first will also have highly sensitive radiation detectors and equipment to collect samples and deploy capture devices. The newspaper states that the drones will be deployed along the border, each will operate for at least three hours and will be responsible for a single balloon per mission. Once neutralized, they will be moved to a location where experts can analyze and eliminate them.

A medium term solution. It was also revealed that research and development will take approximately three years and require an annual budget of 10 billion won (equivalent to approximately 6.8 million euros). Waiting so long for a solution has already caused concern, especially considering that more than 5,500 balloons arrived in six months, with particularly busy days: in July, around 500 were counted in 24 hours. .

The team behind the initiative has already come forward, suggesting that the task ahead is not easy. Not only will they analyze the balloons and find the most effective and safe way to neutralize them. Your devices will need to handle this and carry heavy equipment in all weather conditions. They will also need to build special areas to hold rehearsals.

climbing climbing. There is a third reason why North Korean balloons cause concern in South Korea. Already tense relations between Seoul and Pyongyang are not at their best. In recent months, tensions between the two have risen to levels that could affect the 2018 military agreement, with Kim Jong-un referring to his southern neighbor as “enemy No. 1”.

Pyongyang has just made an announcement that is largely symbolic but reflective of the state of relations: it has decided to cut off road and rail access with South Korea in order to “completely separate” the two regions and “permanently close the border.” The military (KPA) argues that the measure was “an act of self-defense to avoid war.”

Pictures | B Ystebo (Flickr) and Trump White House Archived (Flickr)

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