North Korean rubbish balloon causes fire in Seoul

SEOUL: A trash balloon from North Korea landed on a Seoul building rooftop and caused a fire, a local fire department said on Monday, among thousands of balloons Pyongyang has sent southward this year, sparking a tit-for-tat propaganda campaign.

“At around 9:04 pm (1204 GMT) on Sunday, a fire broke out on the rooftop of a four-story commercial building in the Western district of Seoul,” Seoul´s Gangseo Fire Station said in a statement.

The fire was extinguished in 18 minutes and 15 fire trucks and 56 personnel were deployed, said the fire department, adding there were no casualties. Military and police authorities collected the balloon, which was being investigated.

Pyongyang launched about 120 trash-filled balloons towards the border late Sunday, following 50 balloons that were sent on Saturday, South Korea´s military said on Monday. Around 40 of the balloons had already landed in the South, mainly in northern Gyeonggi province and the capital Seoul, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The bags attached to those balloons contained “mostly paper and plastic waste”, the JCS said, adding that they posed no safety risk to the public. North Korea has sent more than 5,000 trash-filled balloons southward since May, saying they are retaliation for propaganda balloons launched by South Korean activists.