Seoul stops propaganda broadcasts
NORTH KOREA’S DECISION TO FREEZE NUCLEAR PROGRAMME A SIGNIFICANT DECISION, PRESIDENT MOON SAYS
South Korea halted the propaganda broadcasts it blares across the border at North Korea yesterday ahead of their first summit in a decade, as US President Donald Trump cautioned the nuclear crisis on the peninsula was a long way from being resolved.
North and South Korea are in the final stages of preparations for a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Friday.
Ahead of the summit, North Korea announced it would halt nuclear and missile tests and said it was scrapping its nuclear test site to instead pursue economic growth and peace.
“North Korea’s decision to freeze its nuclear programme is a significant decision for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a regular meeting at the Blue House on Monday.
“It is a green light that raises the chances of positive outcomes at the North’s summits with South Korea and the United States. If North Korea goes the path of complete denuclearisation starting from this, then a bright future for North Korea can be guaranteed.”
The South’s propaganda broadcasts were stopped at midnight, the defence ministry said, without specifying whether they would resume after the Kim-Moon summit.
“We hope this decision will lead both Koreas to stop mutual criticism and propaganda against each other and also contribute in creating peace and a new beginning,” the South Korean defence ministry said about the decision to halt the broadcasts.
It is the first time in more than two years the South Korean broadcasts, which include a mixture of news, South Korean pop music and criticism of the North Korean regime, have been stopped. North Korea has its own propaganda loudspeakers at the border, but a defence ministry official said he could not verify whether the North had stopped its broadcasts.
Caution
The inter-Korean talks and a planned meeting between Kim and Trump in the coming weeks have raised hopes of an easing in tensions that reached a crescendo last year amid a flurry of North Korean missile tests and its largest nuclear test.
After initially welcoming Pyongyang’s statement on halting nuclear and missile tests, Trump sounded a more cautious note on Sunday.
“We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they won’t — only time will tell,” Trump said on Twitter.
Still, South Korean companies with exposure to North Korea rallied after Pyongyang’s weekend announcement.