North Korea has threatened to “blow up” South Korea’s loudspeakers after they began spouting “anti-North psychological warfare” over the border.
Seoul started up the broadcasts of anti-Pyongyang propaganda after 11 years this week when North Korea denied planting land mines in the Demilitarized Zone south of the border.
The denial came after two South Korean soldiers had been maimed by land mines in the Zone.
Loudspeakers installed by South Korea at an unidentified site on the western front-line bordering with North Korea to resume the anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasting
A statement from North Korea’s army on Saturday said that the broadcasts are equivalent to a declaration of war and that a failure to immediately stop them and take down the loudspeakers would result in “an all-out military action of justice to blow up all means for ‘anti-North psychological warfare’” on the frontlines.
North Korea is extremely sensitive about insults thrown at its leader Kim Jong Un and tries to isolate its people from any criticism or suggestions that Kim is anything other than powerful and revered.
But South Korea’s President Park Geun-huy told Pyongyang to “wake up” from the delusion it could maintain its government through provocation and threats that would only result in isolation and destruction.
In pictures: Pyongyang propaganda posters
Park said her government would firmly respond to any provocation, but added that if the North chooses to have a dialogue and co-operate with the South then it will find opportunities to improve the lives of its people.
Park also urged North Korea to accept her government’s proposals for building a “peace park” in the Demilitarized Zone and for reunions of families separated by the border, which is the world’s most heavily armed.
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Additional reporting by AP
