Seoul, South Korea — South Korea said Sunday it was stepping up its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across its tense border with its North Korean rival, after the North launched more balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea.
The Cold War-style psychological battle between the two Koreas is adding to already high tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with both rivals threatening to take stronger measures against each other and warning of devastating consequences.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean balloons were flying north of Seoul, the South Korean capital, after crossing the border early Sunday. They added later Sunday that the South Korean military had responded by increasing loudspeaker broadcasts in all major sections of the 248-kilometer border between the two Koreas.
“The North Korean military’s actions that escalate tension may have serious consequences for it,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. “The responsibility for such a situation lies entirely with the North Korean government.”
Details of South Korea’s expanded loudspeaker operations were not immediately available. The country resumed frontline propaganda broadcasts on Thursday for the first time in about 40 days, in response to the North’s previous balloon activities. But observers say South Korea has not been broadcasting around the clock, nor has it yet mobilized all of its loudspeakers.
Recent South Korean broadcasts have included K-pop songs and news about BTS member Jin’s torch-lighting ceremony ahead of the Paris Olympics and the recent defection of a senior North Korean diplomat. The broadcasts have also called North Korean soldiers’ landmine work on the border “a hellish life akin to slavery,” according to South Korean media.
Experts say South Korean propaganda broadcasts can demoralize North Korean soldiers and residents, dealing a blow to the North’s efforts to limit access to outside information for its 26 million citizens. South Korean officials have previously said their loudspeaker broadcasts can travel about 10 kilometers (6 miles) during the day and 24 kilometers (15 miles) at night.
North Korea has yet to officially respond to South Korea’s broadcasts. But in 2015, North Korea fired artillery shells across the border in response to South Korea’s first loudspeaker broadcasts in 11 years, prompting the South to retaliate, according to South Korean officials. No casualties have been reported.
North Korea’s latest balloon flight on Sunday was the ninth of its kind since late May. North Korea has previously launched more than 2,000 balloons to drop waste paper, cloth, cigarette butts, used batteries and even manure over South Korea, but they have so far caused no major damage to the country. North Korea said the first balloons were launched in response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets to the North via their own balloons.
Like the broadcasts on the South Korean front, North Korea views the South’s civilian leafleting activities as a major threat to its authoritarian government led by Kim Jong Un. In angry response to previous South Korean leaflets, North Korea in 2020 destroyed an empty liaison office built by South Korea on its territory and in 2014 fired on incoming balloons.
In a statement last week, Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, warned that South Korean “scum” must be prepared to pay “a horrible and expensive price” for leafleting activities. She said other South Korean leaflets had been found in North Korea.
The situation has raised concerns that North Korea could engage in physical provocations rather than balloon launches. The South Korean military has said North Korea could fire balloons or scatter mines downstream.
In early June, South Korea suspended a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea, a move necessary so it could resume propaganda broadcasts and conduct live-fire military exercises in border areas in response to the North’s balloon campaigns.
On June 9, South Korea broadcast propaganda messages for about two hours, but did not repeat the message until Thursday to avoid stirring up animosity. South Korea warned Friday that it would broadcast propaganda messages more widely and take other stronger measures if North Korea continued its provocations, such as balloon launches.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have already been heightened by North Korea’s provocative missile tests and intensified U.S.-South Korean military exercises that Pyongyang calls invasion rehearsals. Experts say North Korea’s strengthening ties with Russia could embolden Kim Jong-un to launch larger provocations.
