North Korean object ‘was likely balloon’

South Korea military broadcast warning to Pyongyang in response to object before firing

South Korea’s military said an unidentified object that flew across the border from rival North Korea and prompted the South to respond with warning shots on Tuesday was probably a balloon carrying Pyongyang’s propaganda leaflets.

An official from the Defence Ministry said yesterday the military concluded that the object was most likely a balloon after analysing information from radar and observation equipment. The official didn’t want to be named, citing office rules.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff in a statement on Tuesday said the military broadcast a warning to North Korea in response to the object before firing the warning shots, and also that the military bolstered its air surveillance.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, without citing a source, reported that the South fired about 90 machine gun rounds into the air and toward North Korea.

Local media had speculated the object was a North Korean military drone. President Donald Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a ‘madman with nuclear weapons’ during a telephone call with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media on Tuesday.

A White House readout of the April 29 call characterised it as a ‘very friendly conversation’. Days after the conversation, Trump said publicly that he would be ‘honoured’ to meet with Kim.

But in the call, Trump hinted at a possible dramatic escalation on the Korean Peninsula.

‘We can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that. We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20 — but we don’t want to use it,’ the US leader said, citing ‘two nuclear submarines’ the Pentagon sent to the area last month.

Transcribed by the Philippine government, the conversation was released by and

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was ‘stable or not stable’. The Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart’s ‘mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment.’