| South Korean soldiers remove loudspeakers from the Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi, on June 16, 2004. [YONHAP] The North Korean military on Monday accused South Korea of provoking it with propaganda broadcasts ov???? <br>er loudspeakers, which were halted at the border in 2018. Some analysts say North Korea may be bluffing just to ensure ?????pc?? <br>the broadcasts aren't resumed by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.“The Korean People's Army [KPA] General Staff o http://21.vie237.club ????????nce again sends a grave warning to the enemies ... in the wake of such provocations as the recent artillery firing and l????? ?? <br>oudspeaker broadcasting on the ground front,” the KPA General Staff said through a statement on Monday.The statem?????? <br>ent was released after an exchange of warning shots following a North Korean ship crossing the Northern Limit Line (NLL) http://4.vhu254.club ??????? in the Yellow Sea, the de facto maritime border, on Monday.Loudspeakers on the inter-Korean border were dismantl http://0.vms234.club ????????????ed after the Panmunjom Declaration was signed between the two Korea leaders in 2018.“During the Moon Jae-in admin??? <br>istration on May 4, 2018, a total of 51 loudspeakers were dismantled, and there are currently none in the Demilitarized ??????? <br>Zone [DMZ],” the South Korean military said Tuesday.“On Oct. 18, a helicopter entered the Civilian Control Line t?????? <br>o transport an emergency patient, and at that time we used broadcasting equipment installed at front-line guard posts,” it added.Experts say that North Korea has exaggerated or distorted the South's actions in the past as an excuse for provocations. Yet they say it's unusual for the North to make up something that has never happened.“North Korea has been extremely sensitive to loudspeaker broadcasts in the past,” said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification. “They’re claiming that South Korea may break its promise to stop broadcasting, which is stipulated in the Panmunjom Declaration, and in that case, it may have to take full responsibility.”The South Korean government reinstalled loudspeakers and resumed anti-Pyongyang broadcasts in response to serious provocations by the North, including the sinking of the Cheonan warship in 2010, a landmine incident in 2015 and its fourth nuclear test in 2016.The South could resume propaganda broadcasts if North Korea conducts a seventh nuclear test.“What’s more feared than nuclear weapons are loudspeaker broadcasts into the North,” said Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the People Power Party (PPP), a defector who once served as North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom.“They’re a means of shaking up the North Korean military and its people,” Tae said. “In the past, whenever the South chose to resume loudspeaker broadcasts ― after the Cheonan warship sinking, the landmine incident and the nuclear test ― North Korea was in great pain.”Former Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo, who participated in high-level inter-Korean talks after the North fired projectiles towards a South Korean loudspeaker in August 2015, noted, “North Korea's concern was solely the suspension of loudspeaker broadcasts, and they only focused on the loudspeakers and barely brought up other issues [during the talks.]”South Korea agreed to stop broadcasting propaganda via loudspeakers in 2015, with Pyongyang promising to express regret for a landmine attack that severely injured two South Korean soldiers.North Korea has been very touchy about the loudspeakers in the past. According to a document Rep. Tae received from the Unification Ministry, Pyongyang blasted the South Korean side of the broadcasts in April 2012, saying “the group of traitors talked slanderous verbal attacks day and night,” and threatened to “start military action if the anti-North Korea broadcasts aren’t stopped in 48 hours.”In 2016, the North said “the anti-North Korea broadcasts which persistently spew out anti-socialism and anti-republicanism ... are the ugly minds of the puppets to turn the DMZ into a new bombshell of a war.”Responding to North Korea’s recent provocations with anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts would run counter to a law and the inter-Korean agreement made during the Moon administration.South Korea’s anti-leaflet law, or the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, which was passed in December 2020 stipulates, “No person shall harm the lives or bodies of the people or cause serious danger by loudspeaker broadcasting toward North Korea in areas along the Military Demarcation Line.”The 2018 Panmunjom Declaration states, “All the hostile acts including the loud-speaker broadcasting in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line will be stopped.” |
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