![North Korea has floated more than 2000 balloons towards South Korea since late May. Photo: AP PHOTO North Korea has floated more than 2000 balloons towards South Korea since late May. Photo: AP PHOTO](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/eb66e639-0d72-4fbf-942f-ce174b00e7ac.jpg/r0_0_800_600_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
North Korea has resumed flying balloons likely to be carrying rubbish towards South Korea, the South's military has said.
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The development comes days after the North vowed to respond to what it called new South Korean civilian leafleting activities across the border.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons were flying north of Seoul, which is about an hour's drive from the border, on Thursday afternoon.
It warned the South Korean public to be cautious of falling objects and to report any balloons they saw on the ground to authorities.
Starting in late May, North Korea has floated more than 2000 balloons carrying wastepaper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and manure towards South Korea, saying it was in response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets to the North using their own balloons.
No hazardous materials were found.
In response, South Korea suspended a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea, resuming propaganda broadcasts briefly and frontline live-fire military drills at border areas.
The Cold War-style campaigns between the Koreas had paused after North Korea last sent rubbish-carrying balloons towards South Korea in late June.
Earlier this week, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said South Korean balloons had been found again at border and other areas in North Korea.
In her statement on Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong threatened new retaliatory steps, saying South Korean "scum" must be ready to pay "a gruesome and dear price".
This raised concerns that North Korea could stage physical provocations, rather than balloon launches.
South Korea's military said on Wednesday it had boosted its readiness for any provocation by North Korea.
North Korea might fire at incoming South Korean balloons across the border, it said.
It was not immediately known whether groups in South Korea had recently scattered leaflets in North Korea.
For years, activist groups led by North Korean defectors have used helium-filled balloons to drop anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks containing K-pop music and South Korean dramas and US dollar bills in the North.
North Korea views such activities as a serious security threat and challenge to its ban on foreign news for most of its 26 million people.
Tensions between the Koreas have heightened in recent years because of North Korea's missile tests and the expansion of US-South Korean military drills which North Korea calls invasion rehearsals.
Australian Associated Press