South Korean authorities began removing loudspeakers blaring anti-North Korea broadcasts along the country’s border, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defence has said, as the new government of President Lee Jae-myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang.
“Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,” Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman of South Korea’s Defence Ministry, told reporters on Monday.
Shortly after he took office in June, Lee’s administration switched off propaganda broadcasts criticising the North Korean regime as it looks to revive stalled dialogue with its neighbour.
But North Korea recently rebuffed the overtures and said it had no interest in talking to South Korea.
The countries remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, and relations have deteriorated in the last few years.
“It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military’s state of readiness,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
All loudspeakers set up along the border will be dismantled by the end of the week, he added, but did not disclose the exact number that would be removed.
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