S KOREA HALTS BROADCASTS AT BORDER

SEOUL BLASTS PROPAGANDA AT NORTH, EXTOLLING SOLDIERS TO DEFECT

SEOUL: South Korea on Monday silenced its battery of giant loudspeakers that blast messages at the North’s border soldiers, in a conciliatory gesture before Friday’s historic inter-Korean summit.

Despite tentative hopes of a breakthrough over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, US President Donald Trump warned that a solution to the North Korean crisis remains a “long way” off, as he prepares for his own planned meeting with Kim Jong Un.

Observers are weighing the significance of an array of headline-grabbing offers this year from the North — including discussions with arch foes Seoul and Washington, and most recently a weekend promise to suspend nuclear and missile tests — after months of surging tensions.

South’s President Moon Jae-in on Monday hailed Pyongyang’s promise to stop major weapons trials as “significant”. He is due to meet Kim on Friday in the truce village of Panmunjom at the heavily-fortified frontier.

In preparation for the talks — only the third of their kind since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War — the South switched off its propaganda broadcasts, which previously filled the air in the Demilitarised Zone with news, music and exhortations to the North’s soldiers to defect.

“We stopped loudspeaker broadcasts... as of today in order to ease military tension and to create a peaceful climate... ahead of the 2018 inter-Korea summit,” Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.

The North’s military also reportedly began switching off some of its dozens of speakers at the border on Monday, in an apparently reciprocal move, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency, citing government officials.

The two neighbours remain technically at war after the fighting ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty, with tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the mine-infested land border.

Relations have improved markedly in recent months, driven by the Winter Olympics in the South, but the question remains whether Kim will promise any concrete steps towards dismantling his nuclear arsenal as demanded by Washington.

The North’s leader, believed to be in his mid-30s, has overseen four of the country’s six nuclear tests and Pyongyang hails the weapons as a “treasured sword” protecting the country from potential US invasion.

Kim, who has proclaimed the North a fully-fledged nuclear power, has also overseen dozens of missile tests.