Hong Jun-pyo: "I Want to Attach to the Pro-North Left Balloon and Send It to North Korea"

Claim in Facebook Post: "Worried They Will Riot Holding Candles"

Hong Joon-pyo, the mayor of Daegu, claimed that "it is time to unite our strength so that our people do not become nuclear hostages of Kim Jong-un through a South-North nuclear balance policy" in response to North Korea's successive provocations such as sending filth balloons and launching short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM).

On the 30th, Mayor Hong emphasized this in a post on his Facebook, saying, "Once the (U.S.) Trump Republican Party's North Korea nuclear strategy is formalized, the Biden Democratic Party will have no choice but to follow, but the problem is how much our internal pro-North leftists will riot again holding candles in Gwanghwamun."

Hong Joon-pyo, Mayor of Daegu
Photo by Yonhap News

He added, "If it were up to me, I would like to attach these people to filth balloons and send them flying to the North," saying, "There is no other way to protect the lives and property of the 50 million people."

He also said, "Recently, the U.S. Republican Party and Trump's military aides have been competing to present North Korea nuclear countermeasures, proposing nuclear sharing and redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula," adding, "The answer to the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons, which I demanded as the opposition leader during my visit to Washington in October 2017, is finally coming out now."

Meanwhile, on the same day, North Korea launched about 10 SRBMs in a volley into the East Sea. The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated, "At around 6:14 a.m. on this day, we detected about 10 SRBM presumed projectiles launched from the Sunan area in Pyongyang towards the East Sea."

Although North Korea has launched SRBMs under the pretext of test launches before, firing about 10 consecutively is unusual. North Korea's ballistic missile launch came 13 days after a single short-range missile flew about 300 km on the 17th. In addition, North Korea has been carrying out provocations against the South by various means, such as sending balloons carrying filth since the night of the 28th.