South Korea begins removing loudspeakers along border in bid to ease tensions

Shortly after taking office in June, President Lee Jae Myung halted anti-North Korean broadcasts to revive talks, but Pyongyang said it had no interest in engaging with Seoul.

South Korean soldiers work on a loudspeaker that is set up for propaganda broadcasts during a military drill near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea | Reuters

Seoul: South Korean authorities began removing on Monday loudspeakers blaring anti-North Korea broadcasts along the country’s border, Seoul’s defence ministry said, as the new government of President Lee Jae Myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

Shortly after he took office in June, Lee’s administration switched off propaganda broadcasts criticizing the North Korean regime as it looks to revive stalled dialogue with its neighbour.

But North Korea recently rebuffed the overtures and said it had no interest in talking to South Korea.

The countries remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean war ended in a truce and relations have deteriorated in the last few years.

South Korea’s dismantling of the loudspeakers from Monday is just a “practical measure to help ease tensions between the South and the North,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

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