South Korea excludes propaganda loudspeakers to North Korea

South Korea’s military said they have suspended their speakers with propaganda broadcasting across North Korea as part of a confidence in a “restoration” border between both countries.

This step comes a week after the country has chosen its new president Li Jo-Minwhich campaigned to improve inter -korean ties.

Pyongyang believes that the propaganda of the speaker translates the act of war and threatens them in the past.

They were paused for six years but resumed Last June In response to Pyongyang’s company to send balls filled with garbage across the border to the south.

In recent years, the broadcasts have included news from Korea and abroad, as well as information about democracy and life in the south.

The ties between North and South Korea have deteriorated under the previous President Jonah Suka Yeol, who was brighter towards Pyongyang.

Yona was impeachment and removed from office In a short time the placement of South Korea as part of martial law in December, citing the alleged threats of anti -state forces and sympathizers of North Korea.

His successor Lee conducted a number of promises, including to restart the dialogue with Pyongyang and reduce tensions between both countries.

The move is aimed at “restoring the confidence in Korean relations and reaching peace in the Korean Peninsula,” the military said.

But organizations that advocate for improving the human rights of the Northern Koreans criticized the suspension.

“The speakers were a vital bridge for the North Korean people, a reminder that they are not forgotten. Disconnecting them, we only strengthened Kim Jong Yun’s efforts to his people are isolated,” said Khan Song, Executive Director of the Baza Baza Center in Seoul.

“The fact that one of the first actions of the new government is to turn off the speakers is an alarming sign,” she added. “This suggests that we are returning to the North Korean regime.”

But the residents living on the border welcomed this step. For several months, they complained that their lives were conceived from the noise of speakers coming from the south, and from the north, sometimes in the middle of the night.

One border region, the Gangva district, said in a statement: “We hope that this decision will lead to the end of the North Korea’s psychological war that will allow our residents to return to ordinary everyday life.”

According to the report of the Yonhap South Korean news agency, the decision of the military also took into account the fact that the north no longer sends balls filled with garbage across the border.

However, stopping, instead of stopping the broadcast, the military signal that the speakers can be fired again when needed, Yonhap adds.

Seoul claims that broadcasts can be heard as much as 10 km (6.2 miles) across the border a day and up to 24 km (15 miles) at night.

The suspension arrives almost exactly a year after they were first restored in June 2024 – when both countries participated in different companies related to trash and propaganda balls.

The reunification from the south has always been key, when it is increasingly unrealistic, part of the north ideology since the state was created – until Kim has abandoned this idea last year.

Both countries have been technically in the war since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.