North Korea sent trash balloons. Activists in the South sent K-pop

Seoul: After North Korea recently sent thousands of waste filled balloons to South Korea, activists here responded with airborne deliveries that the r...

Seoul: After North Korea recently sent thousands of waste-filled balloons to South Korea, activists here responded with airborne deliveries that the regime up north might find even more despicable than garbage: K-pop and K-dramas.

On Thursday, activists in South Korea set aloft 10 large balloons containing thousands of USB drives loaded with local music - including K-pop and trot songs, an old-school South Korean genre experiencing a modern revival - and "Winter Sonata,” a hugely popular romance TV series.

Launched after midnight from Pocheon, a city about 30 miles northeast of Seoul, the balloons also carried 200,000 leaflets criticizing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as 2,000 U.S. $1 bills, according to a statement from the Fighters for Free North Korea (FFNK) group, which is led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak.

In a statement, FFNK accused North Korea of "indiscriminately dropping” 15 tons of waste on the South via balloons, calling it "a display of insult and embarrassment for our 50 million citizens.” The South Korean military said that the balloons were "clear violations of international law and seriously threaten the safety of our citizens.”

Activists from the South have for years sent balloons over the border in an attempt to reach the people there with leaflets, mediaand even Choco Pies - while North Korea has responded at least twice with airborne trash. The South briefly banned sending propaganda leaflets to the North, but the law was struck down last year.