Seoul MP Jeong Jun-ho says the trash balloons sent over the border from North Korea disrupted over 10,000 travel plans in the South.
The North's balloons forced a three-hour halt to flights in and out of South Korea's Incheon airport on June 26, and multiple balloon launches over the past month have required other flights to delay take-offs or landings — or even to divert.Citing new data from the transport ministry, Mr Jeong said 115 commercial jets were disrupted by the balloon launches from late May to late June.
Mr Jeong called the disruption "an embodiment of Korea Risk", referring to the term used to describe investor hesitancy over military threats from the North.Pyongyang has floated more than 1,000 balloons carrying bags of trash into the South, retaliating to activists in the South sending balloons carrying anti-Kim Jong Un materials northward.