North Korea has resumed sending balloons carrying trash toward South Korea, Seoul's military said on Sunday.

The military added that South Korea was stepping up its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the heavily guarded border between the two Koreas.

"The North is launching another batch of rubbish-carrying balloons," the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement, advising people not to touch the objects and report them to nearby military or police authorities.

South Korea responds with loud speakers

The latest balloons from North Korea come after South Korea announced on Thursday that it had resumed loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts directed at the North.

The broadcasts were restarted for the first time in nearly 40 days as a response to Pyongyang's previous balloon activities.

The Cold War-style psychological battle between the North and South has seen a tit-for-tit balloon campaign, with the North sending nearly 2,000 rubbish-carrying balloons toward the South since the end of May, saying it is retaliation for propaganda balloons launched by South Korean activists.

Seoul had earlier cautioned that it would broaden the scope of its broadcasts if the North continued floating the trash-carrying balloons.

"As we warned several times, the military will carry out loudspeaker broadcasts in full scale and on all fronts starting 1 pm today," the JCS said on Sunday, deeming the North's launch of balloons vulgar and shameful.

South Korea's broadcasts — which contain propaganda, world news and K-pop music — irk the isolated North Korea, which tries to limit access to outside news for its 26 million people.

dvv/fb (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)