All quiet on the Korean front amid reciprocal moves

RTHK

a day ago

All quiet on the Korean front amid reciprocal moves
South Korean soldiers go about the process of putting up a loudspeaker at the border last June when the Yoon Suk-yeol administration was in place. File photo: Reuters
North Korea appears to have stopped broadcasting strange and unsettling noises along the border, Seoul's military said on Thursday, a day after South Korea stopped blaring its own loudspeaker propaganda northwards.
The North has been broadcasting a horror movie-esque soundtrack into border areas since last year, as part of an escalating propaganda war between the arch foes.
But South Korea's new President Lee Jae-myung, who took office last week after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, ordered the military to stop blasting K-pop and news reports into the North in an attempt to "restore trust".
"Today, there was no region where North Korea's noise broadcasts to the South were heard," Seoul's military said on Thursday.
"The military is closely monitoring related trends in North Korea."
Relations between the two Koreas have been at one of their lowest points in years, with Seoul taking a hard line towards Pyongyang, which has drawn ever closer to Moscow in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
But South Korea's new president has vowed to improve relations with the North and reduce tensions on the peninsula, halting the loudspeaker broadcasts Seoul had begun last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southwards by Pyongyang.
The North claimed the balloons – which contained toilet paper and other garbage – were retaliation for similar missives floated northwards by activists in the South, carrying anti-Kim Jong-un propaganda.
North Korea resumed its own propaganda broadcasts soon after, sending strange and eerie noises – such as chilling music and what sounds like bombs exploding – into the South, prompting complaints from border residents.
On Ganghwa island, which is close to the North, the strange noises were last heard on Wednesday at around 6pm, its county councillor Park Heung-yeol said.
"And from 8pm to 9pm yesterday, the North broadcast its propaganda music, instead of the strange noise," he added.
"I slept so well last night. I had not been able to do that for so long," another Ganghwa resident An Mi-hee said.
South Korea's Lee has promised a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang, compared with his predecessor Yoon Suk-yeol. (AFP)