Daily Times

South Korea said Sunday it was bolstering its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the tense border with rival North Korea, 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 the rivals threatening stronger steps against each other and warning of devastating consequences. South Korea´s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean balloons were flying Sunday morning north of Seoul, the South Korean capital, after crossing the border. It said later Sunday that the South Korean military was responding by expanding loudspeaker broadcasts at all major sections of the Koreas’ 248-kilometer (154-mile)- long border.

“The North Korean military´s tension-escalating acts can result in causing critical consequences for it,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. “The responsibility for this kind of situation is entirely on North Korea´s government.”

Details of the expansion of South Korea’s loudspeaker operations were not immediately available. On Thursday, it resumed blasting frontline propaganda broadcasts for the first time in about 40 days in response to the North’s previous balloon activities. But observers say South Korea hadn’t been conducting the broadcasts around the clock and it also hadn’t yet mobilized all of its loudspeakers.

The latest South Korean broadcasts included K-pop songs and news on BTS member Jin´s torch-bearing ahead of the Paris Olympics and the recent defection of a senior North Korean diplomat. The broadcasts also called the mine-planting works by North Korean soldiers at the border “hellish, slave-like lives,” according to South Korean media.

Experts say South Korean propaganda broadcasts can demoralize frontline North Korean troops and residents, posing a blow to the North’s efforts to limit access to outside news for its 26 million people. South Korean officials have previously said broadcasts from their loudspeakers can travel about 10 kilometers (6 miles) during the day and 24 kilometers (15 miles) at night.