Giant South speakers blare out Kim’s killing to North
N. Korea slams Malaysia for ‘corpse politics’
Seoul, Feb. 23: South Korea is using giant loudspeakers to blast news of the dramatic assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jongun’s half-brother across the border with its reclusive northern neighbour, it was reported on Thursday.
Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of the North’s late leader Kim Jong-Il, died on February 13 after being attacked by two women at a Kuala Lumpur airport in what is suspected to be a murder planned by Pyongyang.
The North’s state media remained quiet on the killing until it released a scathing denouncement of the Malaysian investigation Thursday, without identifying Jong-Nam as the victim.
But the South this week employed its banks of highdecibel loudspeakers to ensure details of the death of Jong-nam, once believed to be the likely heir, reverberated through wide swathes of the border area, Seoul’s MBC TV station said.
“Kim Jong-Nam... Died after being attacked by two unidentified women at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia,” blared the message from the speakers and replayed by the TV station.
News of the outside world is heavily restricted and censored in the North under the Kim family, which has ruled for decades with an iron fist and pervasive personality cult. The South Korean military has for years blasted a mix of world news, propaganda messages and K-pop songs across the border using loudspeakers. They have a range of around 10 kilometres.
Seoul’s defence ministry refused to confirm the reports over the latest broadcast, citing national security concerns.
North Korean state media Thursday broke its 10-day silence on the murder, launching a ferocious assault on Malaysia for its “immoral” handling of the case and for playing politics with the corpse.