South Korean authorities on Monday said they have started removing loudspeakers used to blast K-pop music and news reports into North Korea as the two neighbours are trying to dial down escalating tensions on the peninsula.
Seoul’s military said that the move was executed after their neighbours stopped bizarre and unsettling noises along the border. After taking office, the newly elected president Lee Jae Myung had ordered security forces to halt all propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarised zones despite technically being at war with North Korea.
The military further said that Pyongyang had halted transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border a day after South Korean loudspeakers fell silent. A spokesman of South Korea’s military, Lee Kyung-ho, said on Monday that "Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers from demilitarised zones between the two nations.”
He said, "It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military's state of readiness." President Lee, who recently took charge of the country after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, ordered his armed forces to stop broadcasts in a bid to “restore trust and confidence.”
The loudspeakers were installed in response to Pyongyang’s move last year, which flew trash-filled balloons towards the south.
Meanwhile, Lee has vowed to improve bilateral relations with the North and reduce tensions, though the North has declined to engage in any talks aimed at improving ties between the two neighbours.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said, "If the ROK... expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is a more serious miscalculation than that.”
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