Weaponised Waste: North Korea's New Frontline
Photo Courtesy: Mark Scott Johnson
North Korea is recycling the ammunition being used against it, littering the skies of the South with capitalist residue. Bags full of batteries, toilet paper, soiled clothes, cigarette butts, plastic bottles, and vinyl have landed on Seoul’s streets, indicating an escalation in the propaganda war waged since the division of the region along the 38th parallel. These trash balloons constitute more than just a biological threat; they shame South Korea’s adherence to capitalism by returning their material excess in the form of waste. South Korea’s most cherished items have become its aggressor's most disposable weapon.
Thousands of trash balloons have been launched since May 2024 in response to South Korea’s purported anti-Communist propaganda campaign. North Korean state media have justified this as a mere act of retaliation after South Korea sent inflatables containing medicine, money and K-pop loaded USB sticks across the border. In many ways, this indicates a continuation of relations that have been characterised by both intimidating and petty exchanges for decades. Indeed, the conflict has always been fought on multiple fronts; both on the ground and in the minds of Korean citizens. Yet this novel form of warfare speaks to something more sinister: the pitfalls of capitalism, and the dangerous capacity of our discarded items.
North Korea has a staggering military capacity and poses a grave security threat to the world. Yet it is simultaneously investing in weapons that damage its opponent’s ego more than its territory. Described mockingly as ‘gifts of sincerity’ by politician Kim Yo Jong, these balloons deliver a message of pity; they bestow embarrassment and ironic honour on South Korea for providing the ammunition against them. As President Yoon Suk Yeol confronts the kilos of soiled clothes and waste paper landing on his streets, he also confronts the unfortunate byproducts of his capitalist agenda. ‘Western’ clothes featuring images of Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse previously donated by his government are now returning as slashed garments. Discarded items provide a silent form of propaganda for the North; soiled icons of Western media defile the reputation of capitalism. This is fatiguing the South. And not simply because parasitic clothes and excrement pose a biological threat, but because dirtied streets are undignified. By refashioning the South’s materialistic indulgences into filthy sources of political unrest, North Korea presents its opponent’s regime as shameful and self-sabotaging.
The weaponisation of human waste and materialism exposes the frightening reality of our environmental footprint and indifference to it. These trash balloons highlight our excessive waste, and paradoxically our reluctance to reduce it. We care about perceived cleanliness, yet fail to implement significant changes that would limit the waste that threatens said cleanliness. We prioritise the production of material wealth yet resent the footprint it leaves behind. And so, whilst North Korea boasts an arsenal of nuclear weaponry, it is choosing to recycle South Korea’s waste against it. Why? Because the state of a society’s streets reflects the state of its governance. Dirty spaces are sites of incivility and shame. In a world where our environment is littered with the consequences of human activity, cleanliness serves as a litmus test for social order. For North Korea, Seoul’s tarnished streets are an admittance of capitalism’s fallibility.
A new front has emerged in modern political warfare: that of dignity and social civility. This is inextricably tethered to the state of our environment and material consumption. We seem to feel more shame about the state of our streets than the destruction of our planet. As the planet's resources are co-opted for political leverage, we become complicit in our own existential dilemmas. As trash balloons continue to land in South Korea, we must consider what this says about our inability to claim new forms of biological warfare as weapons of our own creation.