South Korea has announced plans to resume broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda through loudspeakers in border areas, in response to North Korea’s recent actions of sending trash-filled balloons to the South.
After a high-level security meeting led by South Korean national security director Chang Ho-jin, officials have decided to deploy the loudspeakers along the border, as stated by Seoul’s presidential office on Sunday.
This move is expected to provoke North Korea and could lead to potential military retaliation.
Through the loudspeakers, South Korea intends to broadcast anti-Pyongyang messages, K-pop music, and international news across the heavily fortified border shared by the two nations. Analysts believe that North Korea is particularly sensitive to such broadcasts as they could undermine the morale of its troops and residents, ultimately weakening Kim Jong Un’s hold on power.
During a similar incident in 2015, when South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts after an 11-year hiatus, North Korea responded by firing artillery rounds across the border, prompting a brief exchange of fire with no reported casualties.
A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea, carrying various objects, including what appeared to be rubbish, is pictured in Incheon, South Korea [File: Yonhap via Reuters]
Chang and other South Korean security officials strongly condemned Pyongyang for causing “anxiety and disruption” in South Korea and emphasized that North Korea would bear full responsibility for any escalation of tensions between the two Koreas.
Over the weekend, North Korea launched hundreds of balloons filled with trash towards South Korea, marking its third such campaign since late May, in response to South Korean activists sending propaganda leaflets to the North.
North Korea has already sent over 1,000 balloons carrying tons of rubbish and manure to the South as part of its retaliatory actions against South Korean civilians…
Source from www.aljazeera.com