South Korea mutes border propaganda to ease tensions with North
The speakers had previously been used to blast anti-North Korean propaganda across the border, but the South's new liberal government halted the broadcasts in June in a conciliatory gesture as it looks to rebuild trust and revive dialogue with Pyongyang, which has largely cut off cooperation with the South in recent years.
South Korea's defence ministry said on Monday the physical removal of the loudspeakers from the border was another 'practical measure' aimed at easing tensions between the war-divided Koreas and that it does not affect the South's military readiness.
Lee Kyung-ho, a spokesperson for the ministry, did not share specific details on how the removed loudspeakers will be stored or whether they could be quickly redeployed to the border if tensions flare again between the Koreas.
There were no discussions between the two militaries ahead of the South's decision to remove the speakers, the spokesperson said during a briefing.
North Korea, which is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of its authoritarian leadership and its third-generation ruler, Kim Jong Un, did not immediately comment on the South Korean step.
The South's previous conservative government resumed the daily loudspeaker broadcasts in June last year following a years-long pause in retaliation for North Korea flying rubbish-laden balloons toward the South in a psychological warfare campaign.
The speakers blasted propaganda messages and K-pop songs, a playlist clearly designed to strike a nerve in Pyongyang, where Mr Kim's government has been intensifying a campaign to eliminate the influence of South Korean pop culture and language among the population in a bid to strengthen his family's dynastic rule.
The Cold War-style psychological warfare campaigns further heightened tensions already inflamed by North Korea's advancing nuclear programme and South Korean efforts to expand joint military exercises with the United States and their trilateral security cooperation with Japan.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a liberal who took office in June after winning an early election to replace ousted conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, has vowed to improve relations with Pyongyang, which reacted furiously to Mr Yoon's hardline policies and shunned dialogue.
But Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, rebuffed overtures by Mr Lee's government last week, saying that Seoul's 'blind trust' in the country's alliance with the US and hostility toward North Korea make it no different from its conservative predecessor.
Her comments implied that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia over the war in Ukraine, feels no urgency to resume diplomacy with Seoul and Washington anytime soon.
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The programming has included K-pop songs with lyrics that double as invitations to defect to South Korea, such as one 2010 love song that goes: "come on, come on, don't turn me down and come on and approach me," or weather reports whose power lies in their accuracy - and have occasionally been accompanied by messages like "it's going to rain this afternoon so make sure you take your laundry in." With a maximum range of around 19 miles that makes them unlikely to reach major population centers in North Korea, the effectiveness of such broadcasts has come under question by some experts. Still, several North Korean defectors have cited the broadcasts as part of the reason they decided to flee to South Korea. One former artillery officer who defected in 2013 recalled being won over, in part, by the weather reports. "Whenever the South Korean broadcast said it would rain from this time to that time, it would always actually rain," he told South Korean media last year. 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That stance remains unchanged even under the more pro-reconciliation Lee, according to a statement by Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader's younger sister, published by state news agency KCNA last month. "No matter how desperately the Lee Jae Myung government may try to imitate the fellow countrymen and pretend they do all sorts of righteous things to attract our attention, they can not turn back the hands of the clock of the history which has radically changed the character of the DPRK-ROK relations," she said. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
