(SEOUL) — South Korea's military said Friday it has resumed loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts aimed at North Korea in response to Pyongyang's repeated sending of garbage-laden balloons into the South.
Seoul said North Korea launched about 200 new balloons toward its southern neighbor on Thursday, the eighth since May.
“We have repeatedly warned North Korea against continuing to launch garbage balloons,” South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The General Staff added that after these warnings, “our armed forces broadcast propaganda messages via loudspeakers towards the north” from Thursday evening until Friday morning.
The propaganda programmes against the North Korean regime near the border are the first since June 9, when South Korea resumed broadcasts for the first time in six years, in response to Pyongyang's launch of balloons, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has sent more than 1,000 balloons into the South in response to balloons carrying propaganda against Kim Jong Un's regime sent north by South Korean militants.
In the wake of the “balloon war,” Seoul completely suspended a military agreement aimed at reducing tensions between the two countries and warned in June that it would resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border.
According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, Seoul broadcast songs by BTS and K-pop stars and information on global sales of Samsung mobile phones to North Korea on June 9.
North Korea, a reclusive state, seeks to deny its population access to South Korean popular culture, such as K-pop or Korean drama.
In 2022, Pyongyang executed a North Korean citizen on charges of possessing cultural content from the South.
The audio propaganda, a tactic dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War, has angered Pyongyang, which has previously threatened to target South Korean loudspeakers with artillery.
Relations between the two Koreas are currently at their lowest point in years, with North Korea increasing its tests and provocations, and vowing to move closer to Russia.
Seoul also recently resumed live-fire drills near its border with the North.
