South Koreans halt speaker propaganda broadcasts on border

South Korea halted anti-north Korea propaganda broadcasts across their tense border yesterday as officials from the two Koreas met again to work out details of their leaders’ upcoming talks, expected to focus on the North’s nuclear programme.

Seoul had been blasting propaganda messages and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers since the North’s fourth nuclear test in early 2016. The North quickly matched the South’s action with its own broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-south Korea leaflets across the border.

However, South Korea turned off its broadcasts yesterday to ease military tensions and establish an environment for peaceful talks, Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement. It said Seoul hopes the decision will lead to both sides stopping slander and propaganda activities.

Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified government source, said that North Korea was believed to have turned off many of its propaganda broadcasts later yesterday. Yonhap earlier reported that some North Korean broadcasts were sporadically heard in the South yesterday morning. South Korean defence officials said they couldn’t immediately confirm the status of the North’s broadcasts.

The move comes amid a recent thaw in animosities, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trying to reach out to Seoul and Washington after conducting his country’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test and three long-range missile test launches last year.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are to meet at the Korean border village of Panmunjom on Friday in the countries’ third-ever summit talks. Kim is to hold separate talks with US President Donald Trump in May or early June in what would be the first North Korea-us summit.

Yesterday, the two Koreas held a third round of working-level talks at Panmunjom and agreed to conduct a joint rehearsal tomorrow of the summit, Moon’s office said in a statement. It said the two sides agreed that Friday’s summit will include a welcoming ceremony and a banquet dinner as well as a formal meeting between Moon and Kim.

The Koreas agreed last week to allow live television broadcasts for key parts of the summit. Yesterday’s statement said North Korea also agreed on live broadcasts by South Korean media of unspecified events at the northern side of Panmunjom. Kim has said he is willing to place his nuclear programme up for negotiation. But it is unclear what disarmament steps he will offer during the two sets of summit talks.

The Korean summit is to take place at a South Korean building on the southern side of Panmunjom.