Along a frontier that has long carried more history than peace, South Korea has answered a northern wave of trash-laden balloons by reviving its loudspeakers, turning the old language of propaganda back on across the demilitarised line. Pyongyang's balloons, drifting down with waste paper and plastic, are a small and absurd thing taken alone, yet they arrive in a sequence of retaliations that began with activists' leaflets and K-pop and now reaches toward the possibility of gunfire. It is the familiar human pattern in which each side insists it only responds, and the cost of responding is meas
South Korea Resumes Border Loudspeaker Broadcasts After North Sends Hundreds More Trash Balloons
Ties between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years.
Mark
Why does a balloon full of trash push Seoul into restarting loudspeakers?
Mimi
The balloons were the trigger, but the ground had been prepared. Last week South Korea suspended the 2018 tension-easing agreement, which freed it to resume broadcasts. The balloons gave it the occasion.
Mark
And the balloons themselves, were they dangerous?
Mimi
The military says its analysis found nothing harmful to safety. Waste paper and plastic. Still, it told people to stay away and report any they find.
Luke
Worth noting that's the military's own analysis. Nothing in the reporting shows independent verification, though nothing contradicts it either.
Mark
What about the numbers? Roughly 330 launched, 80 found.
Luke
Those come from Seoul's joint chiefs. About 330 detected since Saturday night, about 80 recovered as of Sunday morning. The gap is probably balloons not yet found, but the reporting doesn't say where the rest landed.
Mimi
The activists matter here too. They sent K-pop, dollar bills and anti-Kim propaganda north, and Pyongyang says it is responding to that. The cycle runs both ways.
Mark
Is it known whether the broadcasts have started?
Luke
Not from this report. The president's office said they would install the speakers and broadcast Sunday. Whether that happened is the open question, as is whether live-fire drills come back.
Mimi
And the 20km reach is only a belief, not a measured figure.
El Pulso
- Some 330 trash-carrying balloons have floated south from the North since Saturday night, and roughly 80 have already landed on Korean soil, one even photographed on the Han River in Seoul.
- Seoul's presidential office has answered with loudspeakers set to blast world news, democracy and K-pop northward, calling it a corresponding measure the North cannot easily endure.
- Mayors and provincial officials have sent alerts to residents, while the military insists the balloons hold nothing harmful and urges people to keep their distance and report them.
- A 2018 tension-easing pact has been suspended, opening the way for propaganda campaigns and possibly live-fire drills close to the border.
- Ties now sit at their lowest point in years, and the next signals to watch are whether the speakers go live and whether artillery training follows.
Along a frontier that has long carried more history than peace, South Korea has answered a northern wave of trash-laden balloons by reviving its loudspeakers, turning the old language of propaganda back on across the demilitarised line. Pyongyang's balloons, drifting down with waste paper and plastic, are a small and absurd thing taken alone, yet they arrive in a sequence of retaliations that began with activists' leaflets and K-pop and now reaches toward the possibility of gunfire. It is the familiar human pattern in which each side insists it only responds, and the cost of responding is measured in an ever-narrowing distance between them. Whether the speakers' voices of light and hope will reach anyone at all, or simply harden the quarrel, is a question the coming days will answer.
On Sunday morning, South Korea's presidential office announced that loudspeakers would return to the border with North Korea, and that broadcasting would begin the same day. The decision followed another overnight wave of balloons from the North, which the joint chiefs of staff counted at around 330 since Saturday night, with about 80 already found on southern soil. One, photographed drifting on the Han River in Seoul, was released by the Defense Ministry. The military said nothing in the batch was harmful, though it asked people to keep clear of them and report any they found.
The presidential office framed the broadcasts as a necessary reply and laid the blame for rising tension squarely on the North. Its messages, it said, would carry light and hope to soldiers and citizens across the line. Seoul's mayor, Oh Se-hoon, called the launches a cowardly provocation aimed at ordinary neighbourhoods, and residents received warning texts the day before.
The quarrel has grown over weeks. Southern activists floated balloons north bearing K-pop, dollar bills and mockery of Kim Jong-un, and Pyongyang answered with close to a thousand balloons of cigarette butts and toilet paper, pausing before resuming on Saturday. The loudspeaker plan had been expected since Seoul suspended the 2018 agreement meant to calm the border, a step that also opened the door to renewed propaganda and possible live-fire drills nearby. The speakers, stacked in racks, are said to be audible more than 20 kilometres into the North. Relations are already at their coolest in years, and what happens next depends on whether the broadcasts truly begin and whether the guns follow.
On Sunday morning, South Korea's presidential office announced that it would put loudspeakers back up along the border with North Korea and begin broadcasting that same day. The decision came after Pyongyang sent another wave of rubbish-filled balloons south overnight.
Seoul's joint chiefs of staff said they had detected about 330 balloons launched from the North since Saturday night. By Sunday morning, roughly 80 had been found on South Korean territory. One of them, presumed to be from the North, was photographed on the Han River in Seoul and released by the Defense Ministry. The military said its analysis found nothing in the latest batch that was harmful to safety. The balloons carried waste paper and plastic. Even so, it told the public to keep away from them and to report any they come across to the authorities.
The presidential office said the balloons left Seoul no choice but to take what it called corresponding measures. It said responsibility for rising tension between the two Koreas rested entirely with the North. It also acknowledged that the broadcasts may be hard for the North Korean government to endure, and said they would carry messages of light and hope to North Korean soldiers and citizens.
The Seoul city government and officials in the surrounding Gyeonggi province sent text alerts to residents on Saturday warning about the new balloons. Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon called the launches another low-class provocation against civilian areas, in a Facebook post.
The exchange has been building for weeks. Activists in the South have been floating dozens of balloons northward carrying K-pop, dollar bills and anti-Kim Jong-un propaganda, which has infuriated Pyongyang. North Korea retaliated in kind. In late May and early June it sent nearly a thousand balloons carrying cigarette butts and toilet paper across the border, then called off the campaign. It resumed on Saturday, in response to the activists' latest launches the week before.
The loudspeaker move had been widely expected since last week, when South Korea suspended a 2018 agreement with the North meant to ease tensions. That suspension cleared the way for Seoul to resume propaganda campaigns and possibly restart live-fire military exercises in border areas. In 2018, South Korean soldiers were photographed dismantling the loudspeakers near the demilitarised zone at Paju.
The broadcasts are blasted from multiple speakers stacked in large racks. They include world news and information about democratic and capitalist society, mixed with popular K-pop music. The sound is believed to carry more than 20km (12.4 miles) into North Korea.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years. Diplomacy has long been stalled, Kim Jong-un has stepped up weapons testing and development, and the South has moved closer to its major security ally, Washington. What to watch now is whether the loudspeakers go live as announced, and whether live-fire exercises near the border follow.
Citas Notables
We will install loudspeakers against North Korea today and carry out the broadcast.— South Korea's presidential office
North Korea is making another low-class provocation with trash balloons against our civilian areas.— Oh Se-hoon, Seoul mayor
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