Loudspeakers throughout South Korea’s demilitarized zone have been turned off and removed, a symbolic gesture marking a shift in direction for the new government in Seoul. After Lee Jae Myung took office, the country is seeking to restore diplomatist with Pyongyang, despite little enthusiasm from North Korea. South Korea is attempting to reopen space for dialogue following the reduction of military tensions.
Seoul’s new strategy focuses on reconciliation
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 criticising 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. 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. Soldiers could be seen unplugging loudspeakers, mounted together like a wall, and taking them down, photographs provided by the defence ministry show.
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. Propaganda broadcast through loudspeakers across the border has been used by both sides as relations between South and North Korea have ebbed and flowed over the years. In 2018, the then President Moon Jae-in dismantled the loudspeakers as his administration agreed to stop every hostile act that could be a source for military tensions.
Suspension of retaliation
But last year former conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol restarted propaganda broadcasts and blasts of K-pop music in retaliation for North Korea sending balloons to the South filled with trash amid heightened tensions. Since Seoul suspended its own loudspeaker broadcasts in June, North Korea appears to have stopped its broadcasts, which had disturbed South Korean border residents for months, officials in the South say. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, recently said, however, that South Korea’s decision to stop the broadcasts was “not the work worthy of appreciation”.
The South Korean government is betting on the gradual removal of sound devices from the borders in order to usher in a new cycle of stability between the two countries. Lee’s government is trying to restore diplomacy between the two countries through concrete gestures, even without formal reciprocity to date. Such measures are a good way to increase international pressure for the resumption of dialogue.
Military noise reduction improves climate in border regions
Residents near the border report a welcome relief after the broadcasts were suspended. The noise from loudspeakers was constant, both on the South and North sides, affecting local quality of life. As the silence in the regions gradually grows, so does the sense of security and hope about the current situation. The removal of equipment reinforces the beginning of a new era in inter-Korean relations, even if still uncertain.
The bet for a new diplomatic cycle
South Korea acted wisely in trying to break a long-standing cycle of provocations between the two Koreas. This removal of the loudspeakers is a strategic adjustment, which, while still without a guaranteed response from the North, is an attempt to create a new scenario of lasting peace by attempting to open dialogue with a unilateral gesture. We still don’t know what to expect from this conflict, but it undoubtedly places the full responsibility for resolution on North Korea.
