South Korea yesterday said that it was bolstering its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the tense border with rival North Korea, after the North launched more balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea.
The Cold War-style psychological battle between the two Koreas is adding to already-high tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rivals threatening bigger steps against each other and warning of devastating consequences.
The North Korean balloons were flying north of Seoul yesterday morning, after crossing the border, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Photo: Yonhap via AP
It said later that the South Korean military was responding by expanding loudspeaker broadcasts at all major sections of the 248km-long border between the two countries.
“The North Korean military’s tension-escalating acts can result in causing critical consequences for it,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. “The responsibility for this kind of situation is entirely on North Korea’s government.”
Details of the expansion of South Korea’s loudspeaker operations were not immediately available. On Thursday, it resumed blasting front line propaganda broadcasts for the first time in about 40 days in response to the North’s previous balloon activities.
However, observers said that South Korea had not been conducting the broadcasts around the clock and had not yet mobilized all of its loudspeakers.
The latest South Korean broadcasts included K-pop songs and news on BTS member Jin’s torch-bearing ahead of the Paris Olympics and the recent defection of a senior North Korean diplomat. The broadcasts also referred to the “hellish, slave-like lives” of North Korean soldiers responsible for mine-planting work at the border, South Korean media reported.
Experts say South Korean propaganda broadcasts can demoralize front line North Korean troops and residents, posing a blow to the North’s efforts to limit access to outside news for its 26 million people.
South Korean officials have previously said broadcasts from their loudspeakers can travel about 10km during the day and 24km at night.
North Korea has not made an official response to the South Korean broadcasts.
North Korea’s balloon launch yesterday was the ninth of its kind since late May. North Korea has floated more than 2,000 balloons to drop waste paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts, waste batteries and even manure on South Korea, although they have so far caused no major damage in South Korea.
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