North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un has dropped at least 260 white balloons filled with ‘filthy waste and trash’ onto South Korea in retaliation for leaflets scattered over North Korea amid an ongoing propaganda war between the two nations.

The balloons appeared to have been carrying various items of rubbish, including plastic bottles, batteries, toilet paper, and what is believed to be manure, an official of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Authorities have urged South Korean residents to stay indoors as a result after the balloons began to fall from the sky late on Tuesday.

This comes just days after Kim Kang-il, a North Korean defence vice-minister, warned that the regime would retaliate in response to anti-North Korean leaflets flown across the border by South Korean activists. 

‘Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them,’ Kang Il said in a statement to state media on Sunday. 

Seoul’s JCS added that the North’s actions ‘clearly violate international laws and seriously threaten the safety of our people.’

‘We sternly warn the North to immediately stop its inhumane and low-class actions’.

North and South Korea have historically used balloons in their propaganda campaigns since the Korean War in the 1950’s.

North Korean defectors have been known to send balloons to the North side containing anti-regime leaflets, and have also reportedly sent USB memory sticks of Korean pop music and videos, which are prohibited in North Korea’s communist regime.