SEOUL-The South Korea soldiers arrested its speakers in North Korea on Wednesday on Wednesday who put pressure on the K-pop and propaganda in the demilitarized area for more than a year.
This decision takes a campaign promise from the new South Korean president who promotes commitment to Pyongyang.
In his inaugural speech last week, President Lee Jae -Myung – who replaced the conservative predecessor Évanoui Yoon Suk Yeol – has promised to improve intercreen relations and restart dialogue with Pyongyang, in contrast to Yoon who adopted a more conflictual position towards the North.
Under Yoon, the South Korean army resumed its “voice of freedom” emissions in a speaker in North Korea in June of last year, ending a six-year interruption, in retaliation for the North campaign to send balls loaded with waste and human waste to the south.
Lee, meanwhile, had promised during his presidential campaign to stop these programs to alleviate tensions on the Korean peninsula.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense of South Korea said that the suspension of speakers in North Korea was part of the efforts to “restore confidence in intercreen relations and promote peace in the Korean peninsula”.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Unification of South Korea also called on activists to stop sending propaganda brochures to North Korea, affirming that these activities “could increase tensions in the Korean peninsula and threaten the life and safety of residents in border areas”.
The shows have a long history. South Korea began to use speakers to pump propaganda messages in North Korea in 1963, and the North installed its own speakers shortly after, the two parties broadcasting their messages every day across the border until 2004, when they agreed to stop after the negotiations.
But the South started them again in 2015 after South Korean soldiers were injured by a North Korean mine inside the demilitarized area (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas.
In 2018, the two governments again agreed to stop the emissions after a rare summit between their leaders, until the south resumed last June while the North put pressure on disturbing noises – screaming wolves, enclosing gongs and other irritating sounds – speakers in their half of the DMZ.
In the past, North Korea speakers had disseminated propaganda, insulting the government in Seoul as “puppet” of the United States or encouraging South Korean soldiers to be lacking in “paradise” in the north.
In a press briefing on Monday, the South Korean joint staff chiefs declared that the decision to completely stop the emissions to spend actions in North Korea and that a complete examination would be necessary.
The army's decision to stop the emissions was also taken partly by the fact that North Korea has also ceased to send its waste -loaded balloons through the border since the end of last year.
North Korea has not yet commented on the suspension of the south of its speakers through the border. But whatever the softer approach to Lee government, analysts expect North Korea to show continuous hostility towards the South.
In particular, the Pyongyang movement to eliminate “puppets” – a derogatory term used in North Korean propaganda to describe South Korea – its Rodong Sinmun state publication suggests a fundamental change in its approach to the south, according to analysts.
“This can be interpreted as suggesting the abandonment by North Korea of its desire to unify the Korean peninsula,” says Lim Su-Jin, a researcher at the Institute of National Security Strategy, in a report on June 10.
In addition, recent reports from North Korea on South Korea are moving direct criticism from “strategic indifference”, mainly focused on its relations with the United States, the word “America” showing the highest increase in all coverage linked to South Korea by Rodong Sinmun from January to March, said LIM.
Published by Mat Pennington and Tenzin Pema.