Hello Kitty, Parasites: Inside North Korea Trash Balloons According to South 

A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. (Yonhap via AP, File)
A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. (Yonhap via AP, File)
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Hello Kitty, Parasites: Inside North Korea Trash Balloons According to South 

A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. (Yonhap via AP, File)
A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. (Yonhap via AP, File)

Among the trash that balloons carried over the border from North were articles printed with Hello Kitty characters, badly worn clothing, and soil containing traces of human feces and parasites, South Korea said on Monday.

North Korea has flown balloons carrying trash since late May, with hundreds landing in South Korea. South Korea deployed military explosives units and chemical and biological warfare teams to inspect the objects.

The items also included clothes that had been donated from the South that were slashed and cut up, and general trash that appeared to be hastily collected, the South's Unification Ministry, which handles the North, said in a report.

North Korea has said the balloons were retaliation for a propaganda campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in the South who regularly send over balloons carrying food, medicine, money and leaflets criticizing the North's leaders.

Parasites and human DNA were found in the dirt in some of the plastic bags, which shows it contained fertilizer that used human feces, the ministry unification ministry said.

North Korea, which suffers a chronic food shortage, depended on South Korea for massive shipments of chemical fertilizer until such aid was suspended in 2007 as Pyongyang accelerated weapons development.

The trash contained worn items of clothing with Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty characters as well as socks, gloves and children's clothes that had been heavily patched up, masks with fabric stitched by hand and two layers of shirts sewn together.

Last week, the North warned it would send more balloons carrying trash.



'Anxious’ Lebanese Sleep on the Streets as Israel Strikes Beirut

Families sit on the ground in Martyrs' square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families sit on the ground in Martyrs' square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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'Anxious’ Lebanese Sleep on the Streets as Israel Strikes Beirut

Families sit on the ground in Martyrs' square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families sit on the ground in Martyrs' square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Thousands of residents in Beirut's densely-packed southern suburbs camped out overnight in streets, public squares and makeshift shelters after Israel ordered them out before its jets attacked the Hezbollah stronghold, Agence France Presse reported.

"I expected the war to expand, but I thought it would be limited to (military) targets, not civilians, homes, and children," said south Beirut resident Rihab Naseef, 56, who spent the night in a church yard.

AFP photographers saw families spend the night in the open, scenes unheard of in Lebanon's capital since the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel last went to war in 2006.

"I didn't even pack any clothes, I never thought we would leave like this and suddenly find ourselves on the streets," Naseef said.

Israeli jets pounded Beirut's south and its outskirts throughout the night, and Beirut woke up to the aftermath of a night at war, smoke billowing from blazes in several places.

- 'What will happen?' -

"I'm anxious and afraid of what may happen. I left my home without knowing where I'm going, what will happen to me, and whether I will return," Naseef said.

Despite a night of intense strikes, the extent of the devastation and the casualty toll was still unclear early Saturday.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television broadcast footage from southern Beirut that showed flattened buildings, streets filled with rubble and clouds of smoke and dust above the area known as Dahiyeh.

Israel on Friday said it attacked Hezbollah's south Beirut headquarters and weapons facilities.

Martyrs' Square, Beirut's main public space, was filled with exhausted and worried families camping out in the open.

"The bombing intensified at night and our house started shaking," said an angry Hala Ezzedine, 55, who slept in the square after fleeing the Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood in Dahiyeh where strikes took place.

- 'Children's screams' -

"What did the (Lebanese) people do to deserve this?" she asked, adding that her home had been destroyed by Israeli strikes during the 2006 war.

"They want to wage war but what wrong did we do?" she said after nearly a year of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah which says it is acting in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza.

"We don't have to go through what happened in Gaza," Ezzedine said of Israel's campaign against the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

When Ezzedine began to criticize Hezbollah's actions, her husband quickly interrupted.

"We are patient, but we shouldn't be the only ones to pay this price," he said.

Hawra al-Husseini, 21, described a "very difficult night" after fleeing Dahiyeh to sleep in Martyrs' Square with her family.

"Missiles rained down over our home. I will never forget the children's screams," she told AFP.

"We're going back home (in the southern suburbs), but we're scared," she added.

"It's impossible to live in this country any more."