South Korea resumes propaganda broadcasts aimed at North

This handout photo taken on June 9, 2024 and provided by the South Korean Defense Ministry shows an unidentified object believed to be a North Korean trash-filled balloon, on the surface of the Han River near Jamsil Bridge in Seoul. North Korea has sent hundreds more trash-filled balloons across the border in a fresh blitz, Seoul’s military said on June 9, as the tit-for-tat balloon barrages between the two neighbors accelerates. (Photo by Handout / South Korean Defence Ministry / AFP)

The South Korean military on Friday said it had restarted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts directed at North Korea in response to Pyongyang sending hundreds of trash-carrying balloons across the border.

Seoul said it detected about 200 trash balloons sent by North Korea from Thursday to Friday, marking the eighth round of such launches by Kim Jong Un’s government since May.

“We have repeatedly and sternly warned North Korea about their continuous release of trash-carrying balloons,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

Following the warnings, “our military conducted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts towards the North” from Thursday evening to Friday morning, it added.

The anti-North broadcasts were the first near the border since June 9, when South Korea resumed them for the first time in six years in response to Pyongyang’s trash balloon launches, a defense ministry spokesman told AFP.

The JCS said it had identified around 200 trash-carrying balloons sent by North Korea as of Friday morning, with about 40 balloons landing in the northern area of Gyeonggi province that surrounds the South Korean capital.

An analysis of the retrieved balloons showed they mostly carried scrap paper and did not contain hazardous materials, the JCS said.

The nuclear-armed North has sent more than a thousand balloons south since May, calling it retaliation for balloons carrying anti-Kim propaganda floated northwards by activists in the South.

In response, Seoul has fully suspended a tension-reducing military deal and said in June that it was restarting the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border.

South Korea’s June 9 broadcast included songs by K-pop megastars BTS along with a report on the global sales performance of Samsung Electronics smartphones, according to Yonhap news agency.

In addition to anti-Kim leaflets sent from the South, isolated North Korea is extremely sensitive about its people gaining access to South Korean pop culture products, with a recent South Korean government report pointing to a 2022 case where a man was executed over possession of content from the South.

The propaganda broadcasts — a tactic which dates back to the 1950-1953 Korean War — infuriate Pyongyang, which previously threatened artillery strikes against Seoul’s loudspeaker units.

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North ramping up weapons testing as it draws closer to Russia.

Prior to the latest propaganda broadcasts, Seoul recently resumed live-fire drills on border islands and near the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula.