Anchor: South Korean police have received more than 800 emergency calls regarding trash-carrying balloons sent by North Korea since early last week. While the North declared it would halt the balloon activity so long as the South stops sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets, Seoul has warned of "unbearable" measures in response to the North's floating of balloons. Seoul is considering suspending a 2018 inter-Korean military accord to allow loudspeaker psychological warfare operations to resume in the demilitarized zone. 
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: Police have received more than 800 reports nationwide in relation to trash-carrying balloons sent by North Korea last Tuesday and again over the weekend.

According to the Korean National Police Agency(KNPA), its 112 emergency call center received a total of 860 calls regarding the balloons between 9 p.m. last Tuesday and 5 p.m. Sunday, of which 581 were about actually finding objects suspected of being the balloons.

The balloons were said to be found as far south as the central and southeastern provinces of North Chungcheong and North Gyeongsang, causing damage to personal property, such as parked vehicles, and disrupting commercial flight operations.

In a statement carried by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) on Sunday, vice defense minister Kim Kang-il declared a temporary halt to the balloon activity, claiming 15 tons of trash carried by three-thousand-500 balloons had been sent between last Tuesday and Sunday.

Stressing that the balloons were "strictly a responsive act" to anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors groups in South Korea, the vice minister vowed to resume the activity if the leaflets are flown over again.

At a press briefing following Sunday's National Security Council(NSC) standing committee meeting, Chang Ho-jin, director of the South Korean presidential office's national security, warned of "unbearable" measures against the North in response to its trash-laden balloon launches.

Chang issued the warning as he condemned Pyongyang's balloon launches, as well as a recent series of GPS signal jamming attacks, calling them "absurd, irrational acts of provocation" that a normal country can not imagine.

Regarding the "unbearable measures," a senior official at the top office said the government will not rule out the possibility of restarting propaganda campaigns via loudspeakers along the border with North Korea.

The NSC will propose a motion suspending a 2018 inter-Korean military accord aimed at reducing tensions during a Cabinet meeting slated for Tuesday. Suspending the accord would allow loudspeaker propaganda campaigns to resume in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. 
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.