N. Korea appears to have halted broadcasts of loud noises toward S. Korea
North Korea appeared to have paused its loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at South Korea on Thursday, according to the South Korean military.
This development comes a day after Seoul suspended its own anti-North broadcasts along the border, News.Az reports, citing Yonhap.
On Wednesday, President Lee Jae-myung ordered the suspension of loudspeaker broadcasts targeting North Korea in a move aimed at easing tensions and rebuilding trust, prompting the military to halt its loudspeaker broadcasts in the border areas at 2 p.m.
"Currently, there are no areas where such broadcasts are being detected. They ceased late Wednesday and clearly did not take place in the early hours or in the morning," Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a regular press briefing.
"But we are closely monitoring, including (the possibility of) whether they will take place in the afternoon," he said.
Earlier this week, Lee said the military is conducting loudspeaker broadcasts in a "flexible" manner, in conjunction with the strategic and operational situation, saying a comprehensive government review is necessary in order to consider a halt to the campaign.
When asked about whether such a stance remains valid, Lee said such a principle applies when anti-Pyongyang broadcasts are under way, saying the military is on standby to resume the broadcast operation when necessary.
The JCS official said there are no changes to scheduled plans to conduct training in border areas.
The South's suspension came a year after the military resumed the campaign for the first time in six years in June last year, under the former Yoon Suk Yeol government, in response to the North's repeated launch of trash-carrying balloons across the border.
In addition to efforts to allay inter-Korean tension, the presidential office also cited the need to ease the suffering of border area residents who have been severely affected by the noise involving the sounds of sirens and traditional drums.
Meanwhile, the North appears to have shifted its broadcasts of loud noises to music in the western border county of Gangwha. Similar accounts were reported in the border town of Paju.
The municipality said it will step up monitoring of the North's loudspeaker broadcasts to see whether such a change continues.
Since defining inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other" in 2023, the North has sought to erase traces of inter-Korean exchanges and carry out construction in the border area to reinforce roads and anti-tank barriers.
When asked whether such activities will continue, Lee of the JCS said North Korean troops were conducting such moves in "very small numbers."
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