South Korea Begins Removing Loudspeakers Along Border With North

<> on January 8, 2016 in Panmunjom, South Korea. South Korea announced on January 7, 2016 that it would resume the broadcasts from the loudspeakers placed along the border, criticizing the North in response to its nuclear test. In August 2015, when the South Korean soldiers were maimed by land mines in DMZ, South Korea started the loudspeaker broadcasts and the North threatened to attack the speakers.

South Korea is dismantling a bank of loudspeakers along its border, which for years have been used to blast propaganda and music, including K-Pop, into North Korea.

The speakers had been broadcasting on a regular basis since January 2016, they were turned back on as a response to Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test. They can be heard for miles.

South Korea turned them off again ahead of Friday’s historic inter-Korean summit, during which its President, Moon Jae-in, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in person for the first time.

Seoul appears to be moving quickly to show the North it will follow through on the commitments it made during the summit. Both Moon and Kim agreed to cease their audio battle as part of a three-page joint declaration signed by the leaders Friday.

North Korea has its own set of speakers along the heavily fortified border, which it’s used to broadcast music and propaganda about Pyongyang being a workers’ paradise towards South Korea.

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SOURCE: CNN, Joshua Berlinger