{"id":132029,"date":"2025-08-09T15:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T15:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/132029\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T15:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T15:27:13","slug":"north-korea-dismantles-propaganda-speakers-at-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/132029\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea dismantles propaganda speakers at border"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AFPAFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

South Korea’s military says North Korea has begun removing some of the loudspeakers used to broadcast propaganda across the border between the two countries. <\/p>\n

North Korea’s move appears to be a positive reaction to the overtures from newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who had campaigned on improving inter-Korean ties.<\/a><\/p>\n

South Korea dismantled some of its own loudspeakers earlier this week. It had halted broadcasts along the demilitarised zone shortly after Lee took office in June – prompting a similar response from its neighbour.<\/p>\n

South Korean broadcasts had often featured K-pop songs and news reports while the North played unsettling noises, such as howling animals.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Saturday, South Korea’s military said it had “detected North Korean troops dismantling propaganda loudspeakers in some parts along the front line from this morning”.<\/p>\n

It added: “It remains to be confirmed whether the devices have been removed across all regions, and the military will continue to monitor related activities.”<\/p>\n

The speaker broadcasts had been suspended on previous occasions. But after a six-year pause, they resumed in June 2024 in response to Pyongyang’s campaign of sending rubbish-filled balloons to the South.<\/p>\n

Residents living along the border had complained that their lives have been blighted by noise coming from both sides, sometimes in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Seoul claimed the broadcasts could be heard as much as 10km (six miles) across the border in the day and up to 24km (15 miles) at night.<\/p>\n

But speaking after South Korea suspended its broadcasts in June, organisations advocating to improve the human rights of North Koreans criticised the move.<\/p>\n

\"KIMKIM JAE-HWAN\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

South Korea began taking down some of its own speakers this week<\/p>\n

Ties between North and South Korea had deteriorated under President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was more hawkish towards Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

Yoon was impeached and removed from his post<\/a> for briefly placing South Korea under martial law in December, citing supposed threats from anti-state forces and North Korea sympathisers.<\/p>\n

Reuniting with the South had always been a key, if increasingly unrealistic, part of the North’s ideology since the inception of the state – until its current leader, Kim Jong Un, abandoned the idea in 2024. <\/p>\n

Both countries are technically still at war since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFP via Getty Images South Korea’s military says North Korea has begun removing some of the loudspeakers used…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":132030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-132029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114999515167717485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}