Let Kim Jong-un's retaliation not balloon further

As befits a head of state with preternatural powers — that helped North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un climb his country’s highest mountain, drive from the age of three, win yacht races at nine and so on — it is the world’s lot to marvel at the mysterious workings of his mind. Mutual cross-border aural bombardment has been a regular feature of the divided peninsula, and propaganda leaflet-loaded balloon exchanges have happened periodically since the Korean War too, most recently usually by activist groups in the south rather than official organisations.
Used toilet paper appears to have been included in North Korea’s retaliatory windborne flotilla this time to further emphasise its characterisation of South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye as “political filth” in the accompanying leaflets.

In hindsight, even projectiles of used toilet paper — or missives containing Kim’s bombast — are preferable to what North Korea apparently detonated early last month.

But does the presence of cigarette stubs amid the trash stuffed inside helium balloons — besides the usual agitprop —sent into South Korea this time by the North signal an irate but telling acknowledgement of Kim’s status as the butt of countless jokes? The other subliminal message, of course, is that propaganda is mostly garbage.