SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA : South Korea decided to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts targeting North Korea, a serious oiling up tensions on the peninsula. Beginning Thursday evening into Friday morning, the first in about 40 days, it was broadcast in direct retaliation for the recent launch of balloons carrying trash by North Korea across the border.
What exactly is being broadcast from South Korea is yet unknown, but past variations have been a bit of a hotchpotch.. For listeners on the other side of the DMZ in North Korea, that could mean the latest K-pop hits, as well as weather forecasts for South Korea or business news from major companies like Samsung. The broadcasts also reportedly included some criticism of North Korea’s highly controversial missile program, its strict internal controls especially when it came to foreign media and entertainment access.
Broadcasts could inflame the North Korean response: A country famously thin-skinned about any criticism, be it domestic or foreign, against its political system and leadership. This loudspeaker broadcast resumption in 2015 led to dangerous escalation. North Korea responded with artillery shells lobbed across the border, and South Korea replied in kind. No one was killed in the 2015 incident. It’s a grim reminder, however, of what may be the outcome should tensions escalate between the two states on the Korean peninsula. https://www.mofa.go.kr/eng/index.do
The decision to resume propaganda broadcasts underlines the fragile relationship between North and South Korea. The two nations technically remain at war after the 1953 armistice that stopped the Korean War. There have been occasional talks between the two countries about reconciliation, but no permanent peace treaty has been forthcoming. This can be seen as the reason for continuous tensions and the reopening of war.
How North Korea will react to this remains to be seen. Experts say broadcasts will put North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un, farther apart, leading him to unleash unpredictable actions. The situation was being carefully observed by the international community, calling on both sides to participate in defusing the tension, lest a return to the acrimony of 2015 happens again
