The balloon appears to unnerve the regime in North Korea because it has confronted an array of fearsome weaponry across its southern border.

For a country that has sought to keep its population out of the world, sending balloons from South Korea is not a good idea.

In recent weeks, North Korea has denounced the restart of balloon flights carrying items such as anti-regime leaflets and electronic devices.

Park Sang- Hak, a human-rights activist, North Korean defector and the organiser of balloon flights into the East Asian country, said last month that he had used 20 balloons to fly 20,000 masks, 15,000 Tylenol pills and 30,000 vitamins over the border from Pocheon near the demil.

There are two more flights planned by Park, one of which carried a large banner blaming Kim for the Covid outbreak.

State media in North Korea blamed a large-scale coronaviruses outbreak on a landing near the border with South Korea.

Leaflets being removed from balloons
According to South Korea’s ministry of unification, the flights violate a 2020 anti-leafleting law instituted by Moon Jae-in, the then left-leaning president, in an attempt to smooth relations with Pyongyang © Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

The source of the outbreak was a soldier and a child who came into contact with objects near the border.

The Rodong Sinmun urged citizens to be careful with the "alien things" and other climate phenomena.

The medical experts have rejected the claims.

Even if there were no balloon launches, North Korea would still blame South Korea for challenges like Covid, according to a professor at Ewha Womans University.

According to the ministry of unification, the flights violate a 2020 anti-leafleting law instituted by the left-leaning president.

The law was enacted after the North Korean armed forces destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office.

South Korea's conservative president is in an invidious position because of the restart of balloon flights.

One of the agreements signed by Kim and Moon stipulated that the balloon flights would be halted.

The president would face a backlash from his conservative base in South Korea and from human rights groups in the US if the flights were stopped.

He said that Yoon is damned if he supports the activists and damned if he doesn't.

It's hard to understate how much North Korea dislikes balloon launches. They could be used as a pretext for military action.