On Wednesday, balloons loaded with waste sent by North Korea struck the South Korean presidential complex in the capital, Seoul, security officials who deployed chemical intervention teams told AFP.
This is the first time that the South Korean presidential headquarters in central Seoul, which is protected by dozens of soldiers and in a no-fly zone, has been directly exposed to one of the thousands of garbage-laden balloons that Pyongyang has launched since the beginning of May as part of a propaganda war between the two countries.
The Presidential Security Service told AFP, "The chemical, biological and radiological warfare intervention team removed the balloons loaded with waste in a safe manner."
He added, "After investigation, the results confirmed that there was no danger or contamination."
The North Korean Army Chiefs of Staff warned of a new batch of North Korean balloons, as did the Seoul authorities on Wednesday morning.
They said, "If you find balloons on the ground, do not touch them and report to the military unit or police station closest to you," according to the French agency.
This is the tenth batch of balloons that North Korea has sent towards the South this year, and Pyongyang confirms that it comes in response to the sending of balloons carrying propaganda messages against its regime by South Korean activists.
In response, South Korea on Sunday resumed "large-scale" propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers along the border with the North.
Seoul also suspended work on a military agreement aimed at reducing tension and resumed live-fire exercises on border islands and near the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula into two parts.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because the conflict between them from 1950 to 1953 ended in a truce and not a peace agreement.
The propaganda broadcast angers Pyongyang, which has previously threatened to bomb Seoul's loudspeakers with artillery.