S. Korea to North: We're Turning On the Loudspeakers

South to resume propaganda broadcasts after purported H-bomb test
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 7, 2016 6:26 AM CST
Updated Jan 7, 2016 7:00 AM CST
South Korea to North: Our Troops Are Ready
South Korean army soldiers patrol near the border with North Korea on Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Kim Jong Un isn't going to like his birthday present from South Korea, which says it will resume loudspeaker broadcasts into North Korea on Friday—Kim's birthday—as fallout for Pyongyang's purported test of a hydrogen bomb, though the White House has its doubts, per the Wall Street Journal. Back in August, South Korea began broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda up to 15 miles into North Korea, via loudspeakers, after two South Korean soldiers were maimed by land mines outside a border post. South Korea ended the broadcasts after North Korea apologized and a deal was reached, but it said it would resume with any "abnormal" situation. The latest test is a "grave violation," an official says, per Reuters. "Our military is at a state of full readiness, and if North Korea wages provocation, there will be firm punishment."

The official notes South Korea is also in talks with the US about deploying US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula. While the test has been denounced outside the country, North Korea has used it to boost support. "Internally, nothing else is as effective" as the development of a new nuclear bomb, says a North Korean defector, particularly as North Koreans believe they're at constant risk of an attack from the outside. "Let's begin 2016 … with the thrilling explosion of our first hydrogen bomb, so that the whole world will look up to our socialist, nuclear-armed republic and the great Workers' Party of Korea!" Kim told a North Korean newspaper, in which five of its six pages included praise for the test on Thursday, per the Journal. The country's state media agency also published comments from citizens applauding the event. (More North Korea stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X