South Korea propaganda blasts likely to irk North

North Korea’s fourth nuclear test is an abrupt reminder that for Kim Jong Un, the costs of developing an atomic arsenal don’t yet outweigh its benefits.

In response to Pyongyang’s announcement about the purported H-bomb test Wednesday, Seoul announced that, as of midday Friday local time (10 p.m. Thursday evening ET), it has resumed broadcasting propaganda using loudspeakers over the DMZ, the heavily guarded and fortified buffer zone between the two Koreas.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that he had told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China’s approach to North Korea had not succeeded.

“North Korea is still a long way off from being able to strike the U.S. mainland”, he said. “It seems likely that attention will soon turn to additional restrictions on global banking activity in North Korea, and the role of Chinese banks will be central”.

On Friday, North Korea was reported to have increased the number of troops at some forward-deployed units as South Korea readied to restart the broadcasts.

Under the deal, Japan agreed to offer 1 billion yen (US$8.3 million) in reparations to the victims through a fund to be created by the South Korean government.

The South Korean and the USA military authorities have made a decision to maintain their joint reconnaissance posture towards North Korea at the usual level.

“It’s less than a month before the Iowa caucuses, and he’s trying to put North Korea at the top of the debate and the discussion among USA presidential candidates”, Madden said.

North Korea has repeatedly said it wants a peace treaty to formally end the war, which it says will give it the security it needs, given what it sees as a hostile United States intent on “regime change” in Pyongyang.

Among the songs on Friday’s playlist was “Bang, Bang, Bang” a recent hit by A-list K-pop boy band, Big Bang.

A South Korean research institution says a small amount of radioactive elements was found in air samples collected from the peninsula’s eastern seas after the blast Wednesday in North Korea.

Though North Korea already is subject to strict sanctions, the United Nations has promised a resolution to further strengthen these measures.

The songs, and the other content of the broadcasts such as news and information about North Korea’s economic problems, have a serious intention: to undermine Pyongyang’s information blockade on its own people. Most famously, when the USA invaded Panama in 1989 to oust Manuel Noriega, American forces blasted rock music outside the Vatican Embassy, where the dictator had holed up, to encourage his surrender. The August broadcasts were in retaliation for North Korea injuring two South Korean soldiers with mines.

South Korea tries to get under the skin of its archrival with border broadcasts that feature not only criticism of North Korea’s nuclear program, troubled economy and human rights abuses, but also a unique homegrown weapon: K-pop.

North Korea’s claimed hydrogen-bomb test has prompted the UN Security Council to discuss possible sanctions as world leaders seek to build a consensus on an appropriate response.

“China had a particular approach that it wanted to make, that we agreed and respected to give them space to implement that”, Kerry told reporters after the phone call.