Asia

Seoul Announces End to Broadcasts Against Pyongyang at Demarcation Line

TOKYO (Sputnik) – South Korea scrapped its propaganda broadcasts with the use of loudspeakers at its border with the North ahead of the upcoming bilateral summit, South Korea’s National Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Sputnik

"The Ministry of National Defense halted the loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea in the vicinity of the military demarcation line (MDL) at the start of Monday," the statement read, as quoted by the South Korean Yonhap news agency.

Seoul’s move is aimed at "reducing military tensions between the South and North and creating the mood of peaceful talks" before the upcoming meeting between North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un and the South’s President Moon Jae-in at the truce village of Panmunjom on Friday, the document noted.

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South Korea first started blaring its broadcasts, including criticism of Pyongyang, which were reportedly heard up to 15 miles from the demarcation line, in the 1960s.

In 2015, the broadcasts were suspended in a bilateral deal, however, Seoul resumed its propaganda campaign in 2016 after a nuclear test held by Pyongyang, according to Yonhap.

The relations between the two Koreas have seen a thaw in 2018. In February, the athletes from the two states marched under a joint flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, held in South Korea.

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