Lee Ho-jun, 39, had already drifted off to sleep when a noise like a siren jolted him awake at 11:35 p.m. last Tuesday.

“Suspicious objects presumed to be North Korean leaflets have been identified in the front-line areas,” read a message on his phone, labeled an “Extreme Emergency Alert.”

“When I got the text alert, I was confused. The message wasn’t clear,” he told NK News.

For Lee, the initial confusion turned to surprise over the next day as more details trickled out and he learned that the DPRK had sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and even manure