South Korea To Restart Broadcasting Propaganda Over Loudspeakers To North Korea

A day after North Korea said it tested a hydrogen bomb, South Korea said Thursday that it would resume propaganda broadcasts at the countries’ border that infuriated the North last summer. By Ju-min Park and Se Young Lee for Reuters.

North Korea’s claimed successful test of a hydrogen bomb earlier this week has caused heightened tensions between the two countries.

“South Korea has condemned the alleged hydrogen bomb test in strong terms”, not only serious provocation of our national security, but also an act that threatens our lives and future. Park also spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday.

The resolution also requested that Japan strive to ensure security in collaboration with the United States, South Korea, China and Russian Federation as well as other members of the worldwide community.

“If North Korea attacks the loudspeakers, we will immediately retaliate”, the South’s defense ministry official told Yonhap.

Cameramen film video footage of North Korea’s border county of Kaepoong (background) from a South Korean observation post in Paju near the Demilitarized Zone dividing two Koreas on January 8, 2016. The United States, South Korea and Japan agreed to launch a “united and strong” int… And yet, even China has criticized it about this test. What influence does China have over North Korea?

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that frontline troops, near 11 sites where propaganda loudspeakers started blaring messages, were on highest alert.

The US is limited in its military response for fear of provoking an unpredictable regime in Pyong-yang, said Anthony Cordes-man, a defence policy expert at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies thinktank.

Philip Hammond has urged South Korea to be “bigger” than its northern adversary and resist blasting propaganda across their border with loudspeakers.

Four rounds of United Nations sanctions have aimed at reining in the North’s nuclear and missile development programs, but Pyongyang has ignored them and moved ahead to modernize its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

“We are anxious about how things are developing”, the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, told a briefing.

Washington has said it will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state and will continue to pile on diplomatic and economic pressure until Pyongyang backs down.

North Korea dropped a bombshell, literally and figuratively, on Wednesday, when it announced that it had successfully just detonated a hydrogen bomb.

Kerry said he and Wang agreed to work closely to determine what measures could be taken given increasing concerns about the nuclear test. And so this is both a sign of strength outwardly, as well as domestically, to show that this is the man who’s in control.