North Korea on Friday began its anti-South Korea propaganda broadcasts in border areas in response to Seoul’s resumption of anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, Yonhap news agency reported. Included are songs by a young female singer, IU, whose sweet, girlish voice might be aimed at North Korean soldiers deployed near the border.
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BBC reports that the broadcasts are set to start again on Friday, which happens to be the 33rd birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea generally speaking considers the loudspeakers an act of war, though since the two countries are still at war this isn’t considered a big sticking point for the south. In the past they’ve taken the occasional shot at loudspeakers, trying to destroy them. South Korea has reinforced defensive positions near the loudspeakers in case of attack, while the North Korean army has stepped up surveillance along the border, the South Korean Defence Ministry said.
The United States and weapons experts voiced doubts the device North Korea tested on Wednesday was a hydrogen bomb, but calls mounted for more sanctions against it for its rogue nuclear program. North Korea has repeatedly said it wants a peace treaty to formally end the war, which it says will give it the security it needs, given what it sees as a hostile United States intent on “regime change” in Pyongyang.
The U.S.is asking China to not only support more robust action at the United Nations, but to apply its own unilateral economic pressure, as North Korea’s largest benefactor.
Obama also spoke to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea to discuss options.
Their teleconference comes in the wake of a North Korean nuclear test earlier this week that has increased tensions between the two Koreas.
Ministry officials refused to elaborate about what USA military assets were under consideration, but they likely refer to B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and nuclear-powered submarines.
North Koreans are prohibited from listening to K-pop, but defectors have said their countrymen enjoy music and other elements of South Korea popular culture that are smuggled into the country on USB sticks and DVDs.
Some analysts say the North probably hasn’t achieved the technology needed to make a miniaturized warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the USA mainland.
It may take weeks or longer to confirm or refute the North’s claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal.
There is still widespread speculation over what device the North actually did test, but worldwide experts mostly concur that it could not have been a full-scale thermonuclear device as claimed.
Fusion is the main principle behind the hydrogen bomb, which can be hundreds of times more powerful than atomic bombs that use fission.
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Asked about a suggestion from U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump that China could do more to rein in North Korea, Hua said: “What constructive efforts have they made?”
