SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Friday it had resumed bombardment of North Korea with propaganda broadcasts in retaliation for the North’s latest series of launches of garbage-carrying balloons, a resumption of a Cold War-era tactic that is raising animosity between the rivals.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that loudspeakers on the frontline were used to broadcast anti-Pyongyang broadcasts at high volume on the border with North Korea from Thursday night into Friday morning.
The broadcast was the first in about 40 days. The content of the broadcast was not immediately clear, but the June 9 broadcast reportedly included K-pop songs, weather forecasts, news about South Korea’s largest company, Samsung, and outside criticism of North Korea’s missile program and its crackdown on foreign videos.
South Korean broadcasts could provoke an angry reaction in North Korea, which is highly sensitive to any outside attempts to undermine its political system. When South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts in 2015 for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery shells across the border, prompting South Korea to fire back, South Korean officials said. No casualties were reported.
South Korea’s military had earlier said North Korea had launched balloons on Thursday afternoon, the seventh time in recent months.
North Korea from late May More than 2,000 balloons floated They brought waste paper, rags, cigarette butts, and even fertilizer to South Korea. South Korean activists handing out political leaflets North Korea has dropped materials into the country using its own balloons, but no dangerous items have been found. The last time North Korea sent such a balloon was in late June.
In contrast, South Korea Suspension of 2018 de-escalation agreement With North Korea, it resumed short-lived propaganda broadcasts and front-line live-fire military exercises in the border area.
Earlier this week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said South Korean balloons had been found again in North Korea’s border areas and elsewhere, suggesting that they might again send garbage-laden balloons or launch new counterattacks. In a statement on Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong warned that South Korean “scum” must be prepared to pay a “terribly high price,” raising concerns that North Korea might launch a physical provocation rather than a balloon launch.
South Korea’s military said on Wednesday it had stepped up preparations for any provocations from North Korea, which it said could open fire on South Korean balloons flying across the border or floating mines downstream.
It was not immediately clear whether South Korean groups had dropped leaflets in North Korea recently, but for years, activist groups led by defectors have used helium-filled balloons to drop anti-North Korea leaflets, USB sticks containing K-pop and Korean dramas, and U.S. dollar bills into the country.
North Korea sees such activities as a serious security threat and a challenge to its ban on foreign news for most of its 26 million people. Destroyed an empty liaison office built by South Korea Infuriated by South Korea’s leaflet-distributing campaign, North Korea landed on its territory. In 2014, North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory, and South Korea retaliated, but no casualties were reported.
Tensions between the two Koreas have risen in recent years due to North Korean missile tests and expanded U.S.-South Korean military exercises that Pyongyang has described as invasion rehearsals. Experts say North Korea’s growing ties with Russia make it more likely that Kim Jong Un will launch bigger provocations, especially ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
North Korean state media reported on Friday that Kim Jong Un met with a Russian delegation led by Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko. During the meeting, Kim stressed the need for the two countries’ militaries to be more firmly united in upholding international peace and justice, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.
In June, Kim Jong Un met with Russian President Putin in Pyongyang. Each country The two countries vowed to provide aid if the other comes under attack and to step up other cooperation in a deal that analysts say represents the strongest ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.
