TOKYO, June 2. /TASS/. Pyongyang will temporarily suspend launching balloons carrying garbage to South Korea but will resume its trash-balloon operation if Seoul continues scattering propaganda leaflets, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing a North Korean defense ministry spokesman.

According to KCNA, around 3,500 balloons carrying some 15 tons of trash such as cigarette butts, cloth, paper waste and plastic were sent North Korea across the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas from May 28 to June 2, saying that it was a tit-for-tat response to what it called South Korea’s "scattering leaflets and various dirty things" over the border.

Earlier, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong characterized the launching of balloons carrying trash to South Korea as a manifestation of "the North Korean people's fair right to freedom of expression" and cautioned that Pyongyang will give a ten-fold response to any spread of ‘South Korean propaganda garbage’ on their territory.

Last time North Korean defectors living in South Korea scattered leaflets on May 10. Earlier, the South Korean military expected Pyongyang to launch more trash balloon on June 1 when the wind changes its direction.

South Korea’s government promised to take measures that "could hardly be tolerated in case provocations continue." Such measures could include the resumption of propaganda broadcasting via loudspeakers to exert psychological pressure on the army and residents of North Korean border areas.

Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to stop the use of loudspeaker broadcasts at an inter-Korean summit in April 2018, when Moon Jae-in, who sought a dialogue with North, was South Korea’s president. Loudspeakers were used to broadcast weather forecasts, news from South and the world, as well as South Korean pop music.