South Korea entered its second day of renewed loudspeaker broadcasts along its border with North Korea on Monday, a retaliatory response to Pyongyang's recent barrage of trash-laden balloons sent southward.
Hours after North Korea floated hundreds of balloons toward the South, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that "full-scale" broadcasting began Sunday afternoon and would continue on Monday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. As of 8 a.m., Monday, the South Korean military identified about 500 balloons sent from the North, 240 of which landed in South Korean territory.
Loudspeaker broadcasts are not new in the long-standing information warfare between the two Koreas. Both sides have employed similar methods since the 1950-53 Korean War, including dropping propaganda leaflets to tout their superiority.
Following North Korea's introduction of border loudspeakers in 1962, both countries have embraced the tactic as part of their propaganda campaign. This practice continued until 2018, when both sides agreed to suspend and remove the speakers during a brief détente under South Korea's previous liberal government.
The conservative Yoon administration has framed its recent decision to restart the broadcasts as an "asymmetric capability," following the Unification Ministry's warning of "insufferable measures" against the North.
High-profile North Korean defectors have also lent weight to the incumbent government's stance. Ryu Hyeon-woo, North Korea's former acting ambassador to Kuwait who defected in 2019, told local media in June that the broadcasts could be key to "toppling" Kim Jong-un's authority.
But experts in Seoul question the effectiveness of these measures. The loudspeakers can reach only 20-30 kilometers at most, limiting the spread of anti-North Korean propaganda within the country.
Hwang Ji-hwan, a professor of International Relations at the University of Seoul, characterizes the loudspeaker broadcasts as a "low-level measure" in response to North Korea's provocations.
"At most, it might demoralize or incite defections among North Korean soldiers stationed near the border. Similarly, the garbage-filled balloons, while inconvenient, pose no significant threat to South Korea's national security," Hwang said.
Resuming loudspeaker broadcasts is an “inevitable” response, he said, especially given the lack of practical sanctions options due to likely vetoes from China and Russia at the United Nations.
However, there should be diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions in the region alongside these measures, Hwang said, referring to a 2015 incident where North Korea's artillery fire against loudspeakers dramatically escalated the confrontation.
"Such moves in the demilitarized zone can trigger skirmishes along the border and complicate matters further," he added.
