South Korea amps up propaganda loudspeakers after new trash balloons
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The South Korean military announces that it was expanding the scope of its frontline propaganda broadcasts in retaliation for the most recent batch of balloons.
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South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with DPRK, Sunday, July 21, 2024 (AP)
In reaction to the DPRK sending more trash-carrying balloons across the border, South Korea will increase its propaganda broadcasts to the North, the Seoul military announced on Sunday.
The DPRK has been waging a tit-for-tat campaign between the two Koreas since May, sending roughly 2,000 trash-carrying balloons southward in what it says is payback for propaganda balloons that South Korean activists had launched.
The South Korean military announced that it was expanding the scope of its frontline propaganda broadcasts in retaliation for the most recent batch of balloons.
A Sunday statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, "Effective from 1300 (0400 GMT) our military will conduct full-scale broadcasts along the borders as we have warned repeatedly," announcing in an earlier statement, "The North is launching another batch of rubbish-carrying balloons".
"Please report them to the military or police and refrain from direct contact with the objects."
Seoul warned that the DPRK would "bear the brunt of decisive damage from its tension raising acts committed in the border area" during its declaration of the start of the full-scale propaganda broadcasts.
"We gravely warn that all responsibility lies squarely with the North Korean regime," it added.
Last month, South Korea's Incheon International Airport was temporarily shut down following the DPRK's overnight launch of over 250 trash-filled balloons on Wednesday.
In 2020, South Korea's Constitutional Court invalidated a law criminalizing the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, citing it as an undue restriction on free speech. Consequently, experts argue that there are currently no legal grounds for the government to intervene in South Koreans' balloon launches into the DPRK.
In a pointed response, Kim Yo Jong, the Deputy Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the Workers' Party of Korea and influential sister of Kim Jong Un, derided South Korea's objections to the balloons, asserting that DPRK citizens were simply exercising their freedom of expression.
Read more: South Korea’s live-fire drills ‘suicidal hysteria': DPRK's Kim Yo Jong
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have endured for an extended period as a result of systemic escalation on the part of Japan, the US, and South Korea.
The three nations have been conducting joint naval drills in the peninsula and along the demilitarized zone, which has triggered major security concerns on the part of DPRK.
