Prime Minister Christopher Luxon got to see a North Korean trash balloon firsthand today as it flew above his motorcade just as he was about to depart the Demilitarised Zone at the border between South and North Korea.
Luxon had just finished an interview with 1News — in which he condemned North Korea for destabilising the region with its nuclear weapons programme and its supplying of weapons to Russia — when the trash balloon passed overhead.
Luxon had met with the head of the United Nations Command in Korea US General Paul LaCamera and visited the border area, with North Korean troops not far away.
"When you're in the blue huts actually walking across into what is North Korea, you realise the incredible job that the UN command team has been doing over many decades now in order to keep that peace," Luxon said from the Demilitarised Zone today.
The NZ Prime Minister at the demilitarized zone at a time of low level antagonism and provocation from both sides. (Source: 1News)
Before the balloon flew over head, Luxon was asked whether he'd like North Korea and South Korea to stop antagonising one another with balloon flights.
"It was really good to talk to the general of UN Command here and just actually other officers as well. I mean they are constantly focusing on making sure that there is as much communication as possible. There are no surprises, there is no miscalculation."
North Korea has flown thousands of the trash balloons into South Korea this year — they're variously filled with plastic and paper waste, ciggarette butts and at times faecal matter too.
The lofty intrusions were in retaliation for South Korean activists who flew anti-North Korean pamphlets over the border, the South Korean Government also blasted K-Pop music across the border from a network of fixed and mobile speakers.
While it may seem petty, their actions were in breach of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
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