The South Korean government has ordered the termination of propaganda emissions against North Korea through the speakers on the Interorean border.
The measure, announced by the Ministry of South Korean defense on Wednesday, is the first tangible gesture of the approach by the new liberal administration of Seoul, only a week after power, such as recount The Boston Globe.
The president Lee Jae-Myungwho came to the office after an early elections that overthrow the conservative Yoon Suk YeolHe has promised to change the tone in bilateral relationships with Pyongyang.
The new president has promised to try to resume dialogue with the Noord -Korean regime, which during the mandate of His predecessor responded with hostility to hard hand policy and practically canceled all diplomatic contact.
The speakers were re -activated in June last year in response to a unique propaganda offensive from Noord -Korea, which launched thousands of balloons from May to November loaded with waste in the south.
The balloons transported from paper waste and rags to cigarette butts and even droppings, in an unusual attempt to organize the South Korean population psychologically.
The North justified his campaign and claimed that South Korean activists had previously crossed the border with balloons loaded with critical pamphlets with the Kim Jong-Un regime, as well as devices USB They contain South Korean pop music and television dramas, considered subversive material in the hermetic communist state.
Noord -Korea is especially sensitive to every external criticism of its authoritarian system and his supreme leader, who runs the country under strong control for Three generations.
In response to the Noord -Korean offensive, Seoul again activated his speaker systems in the definition line and published both propaganda messages and songs of K-pop Focused north.
These psychological war practices, typical of the Cold War, joined a scenario that is already tense because of North -Korean nuclear arsenal growth The increasingly frequent joint military exercises Between South Korea, the US and Japan.
Tripartite military maneuvers and strengthening cooperation between defense during the government of Yoon Suk Yeol They were seen by Pyongyang as a direct threat to feed the cycle of crossed provocations and hinder each negotiation attempt.
The gesture of deactivating the speakers could open the door for a partial thaw in Interorean RelationsAlthough the path to a real expansion remains full of obstacles.
Noord -Korea has systematically rejected dialogue offers in recent years and the end of international sanctions and the stopping of military exercises against them as earlier conditions demands.
In the meantime, the international community carefully observes the first steps of the Lee administration, at a time when the East -Panorama is still characterized by the Strategic rivalry between Washington and BeijingUncertainty about North Korean policy and the growing role of Japan in the context of regional defense alliances.
For the time being, speakers represents one Symbolic gesture Van Goodwill in the midst of a long and complex process of permanent tension on the Korean peninsula.
