South Korea silences loudspeakers in gesture toward North
South Korea's newly elected President Lee Jae-myung has suspended anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts at the border with North Korea, aiming to ease tensions and 'rebuild trust.'
Inter-Korean relations reached their lowest point in decades during the presidency of the recently impeached Yoon Suk Yeol. Lee has pledged to restore ties.
The president has instructed the military to halt cross-border broadcasts as a gesture aimed at 'easing tensions' with the North, presidential office spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
The measure is intended to demonstrate the new South Korean administration's 'commitment to restoring trust in inter-Korean relations and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula,' she said. It is also 'meant to reduce military confrontation between the two Koreas and open the door to rebuilding mutual trust,' Kang added.
It will also be a 'practical step' to ease the suffering of locals affected by the noise, she said.
Large-scale loudspeaker arrays have been blaring propaganda, South Korean news broadcasts, and K-pop since last June, following another spike in tensions between the neighbors. At that time, North Korea began launching balloons filled with trash and excrement southward over the border in response to the South spreading propaganda leaflets over northern territory.
The new South Korean president, who won a snap election last week, has promised to end both the propaganda broadcasts and the leaflet campaigns. His predecessor, Yoon, was impeached in December and indicted on insurrection charges after briefly imposing martial law, citing a looming 'rebellion' by pro-Pyongyang forces in the opposition.
North Korea has repeatedly denounced joint military drills between South Korea and the United States over the past years, calling them rehearsals for an attack. The North views the presence of American troops and the integration of advanced weaponry in these drills as direct threats to its sovereignty, compelling it to bolster its own military capabilities in self-defense. Seoul and its key ally, Washington, have technically remained at war with Pyongyang since 1953.
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