Conflicting Koreas and decades-long war of words

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Conflicting Koreas and decades-long war of words
South Korean army soldiers adjust equipment used for propaganda broadcasts near the border area between South Korea and North Korea in Yeoncheon.

Seoul - South Korea's resumption of anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts after the North Korea's nuclear test take the rival countries back to a Cold War era warfare.

By Agencies

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Published: Fri 8 Jan 2016, 4:07 PM

Last updated: Fri 8 Jan 2016, 6:14 PM

South Korea's resumption of anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts from mammoth speakers in retaliation for the North's fourth nuclear test is a return to old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare - something the two Koreas, locked in a standoff over the world's most heavily armed border, specialise in.
Many in Seoul believe the broadcasts will sting in Pyongyang because the rigidly controlled, authoritarian country worries that the broadcasts will demoralise frontline troops and residents and eventually weaken the grip of absolute leader Kim Jong Un.
Here is a look at the history of propaganda warfare between the rival Koreas:
The beginning (1950s)
The war of words dates back to at least the 1950-53 Korean War, whose fragile armistice has yet to be replaced by a permanent peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war.
Hundreds of millions of propaganda leaflets were believed dropped during the three-year war. Leaflets by the American-led UN forces typically urged North Korean and Chinese troops to surrender, while North Korean leaflets criticised the UN forces and tried to make them homesick by posting pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Thanksgiving Day turkeys.
The Cold War era
During the Cold War, the South used towering electronic billboards, reminiscent of the "Hollywood" sign near Los Angeles, to beam weather reports, world news and salutations to its communist neighbour. The North had signboards of its own to relay such messages as, "Let's Establish a Confederate Nation!"
The two Koreas also used loudspeakers to exchange ear-piercing propaganda messages extolling their own systems and ridiculing the other's across the 4-kilometre-wide Demilitarised Zone, which forms the border and is littered with land mines, barbed wire and tank traps. They also used balloons to float leaflets toward each other.
The new century
The rhetorical battle eased after historic summit talks in 2000 between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, but it didn't stop. In 2002, South Korea used loudspeakers to relay the news of their national soccer team's storybook run to the semifinals of the World Cup soccer tournament, which was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.
In 2004, the two Koreas settled landmark agreements aimed at easing animosity, including the suspension of propaganda warfare.
In 2010, South Korea restarted radio broadcasts and restored loudspeakers as part of retaliatory measures after a warship sinking blamed on North Korea that killed 46 South Korean sailors. But Seoul ended up calling off the loudspeaker campaign.
In August 2015, South Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts after accusing North Korea of planting land mines that exploded and maimed two South Korean soldiers. North Korea denied the mine planting and threatened to attack South Korean loudspeakers.
South Korea halted the broadcasts later in August when it agreed with the North on a set of tension-easing measures.
North Korea considers propaganda broadcasts a direct provocation of war.
Kim Jong Un, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, tolerates no independent news media or public Internet access. Most of the North's 24 million people are only allowed to watch state TV and listen to radio stations that broadcast programmes full of praise of Kim and criticism of South Korea and the US analysts say this information control helps buttress Kim's totalitarian rule, and that Pyongyang worries South Korean broadcasts could destabilise its political system.
Many North Korean defectors living in South Korea have said their departures were motivated by radio broadcasts or leaflets from South Korea. Some defectors, who had served as front-line soldiers while in the North, have said they enjoyed South Korean broadcasts that contained pop songs and sometimes forecast rain and recommended gathering up laundry hung on outdoor clotheslines.
In October 2014, North Korean troops opened fire after South Korean activists launched balloons carrying propaganda leaflets. South Korea returned fire, but there were no reports of casualties.

A South Korean soldier walks up to a guard post at a military guard area in the border city of Paju near the Demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas.
A South Korean soldier walks up to a guard post at a military guard area in the border city of Paju near the Demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas.

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