South Korea to double loudspeakers along border with North
South Korea’s military plans to double its loudspeakers along the border with North Korea to increase its broadcast of anti-Pyongyang messages.
Yonhap news agency quoted a military official as saying on Wednesday that the number of loudspeakers will be doubled by the end of the year and that new equipment will replace the old devices in order to broadcast voice to over 10 kilometers away.
"We will make more efforts to erode the morale of the North's troops at the frontline and deliver information [about the outside world] to civilians there," the official said.
The loudspeakers have been used to broadcast propaganda messages against Pyongyang across the border since August 2015. South Korea had suspended broadcasting anti-Pyongyang messages through loudspeakers since 2004.
Seoul linked the resumption of the broadcasting of the anti-Pyongyang messages to a landmine explosion that wounded two South Korean soldiers patrolling along the inter-Korean demilitarized zone in August 2015. Seoul says the mines were planted by North Korea, a claim Pyongyang has denied.
Pyongyang has repeatedly condemned the propaganda broadcast and threatened to carry out strikes against the loudspeaker units in order to turn them off.
The South Korean official also told Yonhap that the move is aimed at punishing the North for launching missiles.
On June 22, Pyongyang test-fired two Musudan mid-range ballistic missiles, which are reported to have a theoretical range of between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers, making them capable of reaching any part of South Korea, Japan and the US territory of Guam in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
According to the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, North Korea’s recent missile test could facilitate the development of an operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking the US mainland in less than four years.
Seoul and Washington are currently in talks over the possible deployment of the US military's sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) in South Korea - a move staunchly opposed by China and Russia.
North Korea, which is under harsh UN sanctions over its nuclear tests and missile launches, says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea.
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