South Korea to blast North with broadcasts

Seoul — South Korea will begin loudspeaker broadcasts to at North Korea on Sunday that will be “unbearable” for the Kim Jong Un regime.

Its national security council said this after Pyongyang resumed sending balloons carrying rubbish across the border.

The council met on Sunday morning, after dozens of balloons with containers of rubbish were found in Seoul and border areas.

“The measures we will take may be unbearable for the North Korean regime, but they will send a message of hope and light to the North’s troops and its people,” said the council.

South Korea warned before that it would take “unendurable” measures against the North for sending the rubbish balloons, which could include blaring propaganda broadcasts from huge loudspeakers set up at the border directed at the North.

Pyongyang started sending balloons carrying rubbish and manure across the border in May, saying this was in retaliation to anti-North propaganda leaflets sent by balloon by South Korean activists.

On June 2, it said it would temporarily halt sending the balloons because the 15 tonnes of rubbish it sent was probably enough to get the message across on how “unpleasant” it was. However, it promised to resume if leaflets are again flown from the South by sending hundred times the amount.

A group of South Korean activists defied the warning and have since flown more balloons to the North with leaflets criticising its leader Kim Jong Un together with US dollar notes and USB sticks K-pop videos and dramas.

North Korea reacted with fury to the leaflet campaign and the loudspeaker broadcasts, in some cases firing on balloons and speakers.

South Korea stopped the broadcasts under an agreement signed by the two Korea’s leaders in 2018 declaring a new era of peace and harmony and vowing to ease military tension to eliminate the chances of another war.

But tension mounted since then as North Korea pushed ahead with development of ballistic missiles, and declared South Korea “enemy number one”, unveiling a range of weapons that it said were aimed at the South.

South Korea’s broadcasts are blasted from multiple speakers stacked in large racks and include world news and information about democratic and capitalist society with a mix of popular K-pop music. The sound is believed to travel more than 20km into North Korea.

South Korea’s military said the North launched about 330 balloons rubbish starting on Saturday, and about 80 of them fell in South Korea.

Reuters