SEOUL, South Korea — A trash-carrying North Korean balloon on Wednesday landed in the compound of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul’s Yongsan district. For South Korea, the latest intrusion marked an especially embarrassing defeat by Pyongyang.
Even more embarrassing for South Korean security officials, the intrusion was the second such breach of the nation’s most sensitive air space. In December 2022, North Korean drones penetrated DMZ defenses and loitered above the Yongsan compound. Security officials did not detail what was in the balloon that penetrated the no-fly zone above the compound and did not reveal if Mr. Yoon was in his office at the time.
“An investigation by the chemical, biological and radiological response team showed the objects did not present a danger or contamination, so they were retrieved,” the Presidential Security Service said Wednesday, the Yonhap News Agency reported. “We are continuing to monitor in cooperation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
The two Koreas are engaged in their latest war of nerves across the DMZ.
The Yoon government has been blasting South Korean K-pop and audio propaganda north across the 2.4-mile-wide border zone, using huge banks of truck-mounted speakers. Meanwhile, private South Korean activists, some of them North Korea defectors, are launching balloons north that carry propaganda and media critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s regime.
North Korea, furious at these breaches of its tight information and media security perimeter, has responded by sending balloons carrying suspended cargoes of garbage — as well as, in some cases, manure filled with parasites — south of the border. Kim Yo-jong, Mr. Kim’s power sister, warned in recent days that South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price” for the resumption of the leafleting.
South Korea’s capital is an easy target: The sprawling metropolis of 10 million is just 30 miles south of the DMZ.
In central Seoul, the presidential compound in Yongsan sits beside the Ministry of National Defense. The adjacent space was, for decades, the headquarters of the U.S. military headquarters in South Korea before a 2018 relocation to Pyeongtaek.
Today, a remnant U.S. military presence remains close to the presidential compound in Yongsan, as does a U.S. military hotel, the “Dragon Lodge,” and U.S. diplomatic housing.
Mr. Yoon’s decision to relocate the South Korean presidential office in 2022 has proven controversial. The Blue House was a dedicated presidential residence and office complex in use from 1949. It lay just north of a medieval palace and just south of Seoul’s Mt. Bugak.
Along with its scenic charms, the mountain provided the former presidential residence with a formidable natural barrier against aerial threats from the north.
“The Blue House had a natural geographical advantage with Mt. Bugak providing a protective barrier against low-flying aircraft and ground-based attacks,” said Yu Ji-jhoon, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “The mountainous terrain could disrupt radar and targeting systems, offering additional defense.”
The less densely populated area around the old site, also “made it easier to secure,” he added.
Yongsan’s more urban setting “leverages modern technological advancements” to protect the president’s offices, Mr. Yu said, likely including some highly advanced aerial defense measures.
High-tech South Korea has recently revealed that it is preparing laser defenses against intruding drones, but North Korea continues to exploit holes in Seoul’s defense network.
“[South Korean] air defense radars are advanced and part of a robust, integrated system designed to detect high-speed, high-altitude threats like missiles and aircraft,” Mr. Yu said. “However, recent drone and balloon intrusions over Yongsan, highlight specific vulnerabilities in detecting low-altitude, small, and slow-moving objects.”
He added that “the urban environment of Yongsan, with its dense infrastructure, creates radar blind spots and complicates the detection of such threats.”
The ongoing propaganda sorties raise a deterrence question for defense planners here: If South Korean forces try to shoot them down — a tactic which, incidentally, failed against a previous wave of drones in 2022 — they could themselves cause casualties by dropping debris on the civilian population below.
Mr. Yu said that there exist ways to counter these threats without endangering those on the ground.
Jamming of control signals, or directed-energy weapons that frazzle onboard electronics can send drones off course. Drones armed with nets can “capture” intruding drones.
The question is whether such technologies and tactics will be deployed.
“By combining these methods and setting up rapid response teams with the right equipment, Yongsan can handle drone and balloon threats more safely and efficiently, without putting civilians at risk,” Mr. Yu said.
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
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