Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, urged both North and South Korea to cease a series of retaliatory actions, such as South Korea's border loudspeaker broadcasts and North Korea's trash balloon campaign, labeling it a "childish chicken game" that could lead to war. He emphasized the need to halt this dangerous tit-for-tat dynamic during a Supreme Council meeting, warning that it could escalate into a localized or full-scale conflict, resulting in losses for both Koreas. The resumption of South Korea's loudspeaker broadcasts near the inter-Korean border, after a six-year hiatus, was in response to North Korea's recent launch of balloons carrying trash into the South. This escalation came after President Yoon Suk Yeol endorsed a motion to fully suspend a 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact. The cycle of actions began with anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns by activists in Seoul, prompting North Korea to send nearly 1,000 balloons carrying trash to the South. Despite the South Korean government's warning of "unendurable" measures, the North launched its third round of trash-filled balloons following a similar action by a North Korean defector group in Seoul.