Pyongyang expands propaganda broadcasts in border areas, says Seoul

Seoul is taking measures to protect its citizens north of the Korean demilitarized zone in Kaesong, where about 800 South Koreans are located in an industrial park that employs North Korean factory workers.

U.S. troops stationed in South Korea have been put on the highest alert ever to deter “any provocation coming from North Korea”, following Pyongyang’s latest underground nuclear test, an official from United States Forces Korea said, as cited by Reuters.

A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress from Andersen Air Base Guam, conducted a low-level flight in the vicinity of Osan, South Korea, in response to recent provocative action by North Korea on Saturday.

Interviewed on CNN, McDonough said the USA would work with South Korea, Japan, China and Russian Federation “to deeply isolate the North Koreans” and “squeeze” them until they lived up to prior commitments to get rid of their nuclear weapons.

“The United States and South Korea are continuously and closely having discussions on additional deployment of strategic assets”, said a spokesman for South Korea’s defence ministry.

Other strategic assets under consideration reportedly include a US aircraft carrier, a nuclear-powered submarine and F-22 stealth fighters.

Asked about Sunday’s flyover, China’s foreign ministry on Monday urged all sides “to exercise restraint” to avoid jeopardizing stability on the Korean peninsula.

An analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey fixed the coordinates of the bomb test in northeastern North Korea, an isolated and heavily forested area about 6,000 feet in elevation.

South Korean conservative activists hold placards showing portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during a rally denouncing North Korea’s hydrogen bomb test in Seoul on January.

When Seoul Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, Seoul says the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire.

Given that the North’s loudspeakers are not clearly audible – they were said to make buzzing sounds – sources said that the loudspeaker campaign would also serve as a distraction for its own residents from anti-regime propaganda, such as the smearing of Kim Jong-un.

“Only when a peace treaty is concluded between the DPRK (North Korea) and the U.S. can genuine peace settle in the Korean Peninsula”, state news agency KCNA quoted it as saying. A top North Korean official told a rally on Friday that the broadcasts had pushed the rival Koreas to the “brink of war”.

“The aim is to minimize the presence in Kaesong, while not hampering actual production activities”, a ministry official said.

124 South Korean companies operate just north of the border at the complex, which was shut down for several months in 2013 during a period of high tensions.

The decision calls for allowing only day trips to the complex for South Koreans.

“North Korea’s nuclear test is a blatant violation of its worldwide obligations”.