SEOUL, South Korea, June 9, (AP): South Korea on Sunday resumed anti-North Korean propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas in retaliation for the North sending over 1,000 balloons filled with trash and manure over the last couple of weeks.
The move is certain to anger Pyongyang and could trigger retaliatory military steps as tensions between the war-divided rivals rise while negotiations over the North’s nuclear ambitions remain stalemated.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the military conducted a loudspeaker broadcast Sunday afternoon. It didn't specify the border area where it took place or what was played over the speakers.
"Whether our military conducts an additional loudspeaker broadcast is entirely dependent on North Korea’s behavior," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
Hours earlier, South Korean national security director Chang Ho-jin presided over an emergency meeting where officials decided to install and begin the broadcasts from loudspeakers. The South had withdrawn such equipment from border areas in 2018, during a brief period of engagement with the North under Seoul's previous liberal government.
Chang and other South Korean security officials berated Pyongyang for attempting to cause "anxiety and disruption” in South Korea with the balloons and stressed that North Korea would be "solely responsible” for any future escalation of tensions.
The North said its balloon campaign came after South Korean activists sent over balloons filled with anti-North Korean leaflets, as well as USB sticks filled with popular South Korean songs and dramas. Pyongyang is extremely sensitive to such material and fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken leader Kim Jong Un’s grip on power, analysts say.