SKorea on Alert for More Trash Balloons from the North

FILE - South Korean soldier wearing protective gears checks the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, on June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)
FILE - South Korean soldier wearing protective gears checks the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, on June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)
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SKorea on Alert for More Trash Balloons from the North

FILE - South Korean soldier wearing protective gears checks the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, on June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)
FILE - South Korean soldier wearing protective gears checks the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, on June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)

South Korea's military said it was on alert for more trash-carrying balloons possibly arriving from North Korea on Sunday, Agence France Presse reported.

In two waves last week, North Korea sent hundreds of balloons with bags of trash into the South, describing them as a response to anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons sent the other way by South Korean activists.

Pyongyang announced a halt to the balloons on Sunday but days later, a South Korean group called "Fighters for Free North Korea" said it had sent 10 balloons with K-pop music and 200,000 leaflets against leader Kim Jong Un.

The South Korean military is "closely monitoring with vigilance" because of "the possibility of more trash balloons descending around tomorrow", its spokesperson told AFP on Saturday.

North Korea had said it would respond with "wastepaper and rubbish" a hundred times the amount if more South Korean leaflets were sent.

The North Korean balloons last week landed in a number of locations in the South, and were found to be carrying garbage such as cigarette butts, cardboard scrap and waste batteries.

In response to the balloons, South Korea on Tuesday completely suspended a 2018 military deal with the North, which was meant to reduce tensions between the neighbors.

Authorities in Seoul have condemned the North Korean balloons as a "low-class" act and threatened countermeasures that it said Pyongyang would find "unendurable".



Dozens of Migrants May Have Drowned En Route to Spain By Boat

This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)
This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)
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Dozens of Migrants May Have Drowned En Route to Spain By Boat

This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)
This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)

As many as 50 migrants attempting to reach Spain by boat from West Africa may have drowned, migrant rights group Walking Borders said on Thursday.
Moroccan authorities on Wednesday rescued 36 people from a boat that had departed from Mauritania on Jan. 2, the group based in Madrid and Navarra said, and had carried 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis.
A record 10,457 migrants, or 30 people a day, died trying to reach Spain in 2024, most while attempting to cross the Atlantic route from West African countries such as Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary islands, according to Walking Borders, Reuters said.
The rights group said it had alerted authorities from all countries involved six days ago about the missing boat.
Alarm Phone, an NGO that provides an emergency phone line for migrants lost at sea, said it had alerted Spain's maritime rescue service on Jan. 12.
The service said it did not have any information about the boat.
Citing the Walking Borders' post on social media platform X, the Canary Islands' regional leader Fernando Clavijo expressed his sorrow for the victims and urged Spain and Europe to act to prevent further tragedies.
"The Atlantic cannot continue to be the graveyard of Africa," Clavijo said on X. "They cannot continue to turn their backs on this humanitarian drama."
Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said on X that 44 of those who drowned were from Pakistan.
"They spent 13 days of anguish on the crossing without anyone coming to rescue them," she said.