South Korea’s military on Sunday conducted propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts near the border with North Korea in response to the North’s recent launch of balloons carrying trash into the South.

The broadcasts took place in the afternoon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, without providing further details, such as the exact time it was carried out and the kind of equipment that was used, because it was a military operation.

A military official said earlier it would broadcast the “Voice of Freedom,” a radio program run by the defense ministry’s psychological warfare unit.

Upon the decision by the presidential National Security Council to restart the loudspeaker broadcasts, the military reportedly operated several of the fixed loudspeakers installed in the front-line region for two hours from 5 p.m.

“Whether there will be additional broadcasts of our military’s loudspeakers depends entirely on North Korea’s actions,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters. “We strongly urge (the North) to imme
diately stop its despicable acts, such as the launches of waste balloons.”

Since May 28, the North has launched the balloons toward the South, describing it as a “tit-for-tat” response to anti-Pyongyang leafleting by activists in South Korea.

It launched some 330 balloons late Saturday and early Sunday, but only around 80 of them landed in the country. It sent nearly 1,000 trash-carrying balloons into the South late last month and early last week.

For years, North Korean defectors in the South and conservative activists have sent leaflets to the North via balloons to help encourage North Koreans to eventually rise up against the Pyongyang regime.

North Korea has bristled at the propaganda campaign amid concern that an influx of outside information could pose a threat to its leader Kim Jong-un.

Source: Yonhap News Agency