Koreas dismantle border boomers
Propaganda speakers removed after summit promise
NORTH and South Korea yesterday began dismantling loudspeakers that blared propaganda across their heavily fortified border, South Korea’s defence ministry said – fulfilling a promise made at last week’s historic summit.
The moves are the first practical, if small, steps toward reconciliation after Friday’s meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North’s Kim Jong-un.
Moon, meanwhile, asked in a phone conversation yesterday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the United Nations help verify North Korea’s planned shutdown of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site, a statement from the presidential Blue House said.
Guterres had said the requests needed approval from the UN Security Council, but he wanted to cooperate to build peace on the Korean peninsula and would assign a UN official in charge of arms control to cooperate with South Korea, it said.
Days before Friday’s summit, the North surprised the world by declaring it would dismantle the test site to “transparently guarantee” its dramatic commitment to stop all nuclear and missile tests.
The Punggye-ri site, where North Korea has conducted all six of its nuclear tests, consists of a system of tunnels dug beneath Mount Mantap in the northeastern part of the country.
Some experts and researchers have speculated the most recent – and by far largest – blast in September had rendered the entire site unusable. But Kim said there were two additional, larger tunnels that remained in very good condition.
Along the border, South Korea started taking down its loudspeakers yesterday afternoon, a defence official said. Activity along the border indicated North Koreans were doing the same, he said.
For decades, with only a few breaks, the two sides have pumped out propaganda from huge banks of speakers as a form of psychological warfare. The steps come amid speculation about where Kim will meet US President Donald Trump, who said their planned summit could take place in three or four weeks.
Trump tweeted on Monday that the Peace House in the demilitarised zone, where Moon met Kim, would be an excellent venue to meet Kim.
But a senior US official said Singapore was still high on the list of potential sites.
Meanwhile, Kim, a known heavy smoker, reportedly refrained from lighting up during the summit with Moon – but enthusiastically accepted every offer of a drink.
“Chairman Kim did not smoke even when there were no prying eyes from journalists and photographers around him,” a Moon aide was quoted by the media as saying.
“This was probably a gesture of respect towards President Moon who is much older than him,” he said.
Kim also gestured to Moon to step into a lift ahead of him, with Moon later describing him as well-mannered and straightforward and candid.