On Sunday, South Korea announced that after North Korea once again sent a batch of balloons carrying garbage into South Korean territory, South Korea will restart its anti-North Korea high-volume propaganda broadcasts along the entire inter-Korean border.
According to reports by the Associated Press, on Sunday morning, North Korea once again sent a batch of balloons carrying garbage into the airspace along the South Korean border, with the balloons flying as far north as Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Later in the day, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that in response, the South Korean military is conducting high-volume propaganda broadcasts at all major locations along the 248-kilometer border between the two Koreas.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea stated in a release, “North Korea’s actions escalating tension may lead to serious consequences. The responsibility for this situation entirely lies with the North Korean government.”
Details of South Korea’s expanded high-volume propaganda broadcasts are currently unclear. Last Thursday, South Korea resumed propaganda broadcasts along the border after approximately 40 days of suspension. South Korea initially resumed the loudspeaker propaganda against North Korea, which had been suspended for many years, on June 9, in response to earlier warnings for Pyongyang to stop sending garbage balloons to South Korea.
However, observers note that South Korea has not conducted round-the-clock broadcasts nor utilized all of its loudspeakers.
Experts suggest that South Korea’s propaganda broadcasts can undermine the morale of North Korean front-line forces and residents, and constitute a blow to North Korea’s efforts to restrict its people from accessing external news. South Korean officials previously mentioned that their loudspeaker broadcasts during the day could reach about 10 kilometers away and up to 24 kilometers at night.
North Korea’s recent action of sending balloons carrying garbage is the ninth such incident since late May. North Korea has released over two thousand balloons, containing waste paper, cloth scraps, cigarette butts, used batteries, and even feces, directed towards South Korea. So far, these balloons have not caused significant damage in South Korea. Initially, North Korea stated that it sent these balloons in response to South Korean activists using their balloons to send political leaflets into North Korea.
North Korea perceives the leaflet campaign by South Korean civilians as well as the broadcasting propaganda by South Korean military at the frontline as major threats to the government of Kim Jong Un.
In the past, in response to leaflet distribution by South Korea, North Korea destroyed a disused contact office in the border area in 2020 and fired at balloons coming from South Korea in 2014.
Under an agreement signed between the two countries in 2018 to ease tensions, South Korea had halted this type of propaganda broadcast towards North Korea for many years. However, in early June, South Korea terminated this agreement as a necessary measure to respond to North Korea’s balloon garbage dispatches, restarting high-volume loudspeaker propaganda and live-fire military exercises in the border regions.