South resorts to boombox diplomacy in retaliation for North Korea’s H-bomb test

South Korea unleashed a high-decibel propaganda barrage across its border with North Korea on Friday in retaliation for its nuclear test. Its broadcasts, in rolling bursts from walls of loudspeakers at 11 locations along the heavily militarised border, blared rhetoric critical of the Pyongyang regime as well as “K-pop” music. A male announcer could be heard telling impoversished North Koreans that their leader, Kim Jong Un, and his wife wore clothes costing thousands of dollars. North Korea later responded with its own broadcasts, ratcheting up the tensions between the warring neighbours.

Achieving denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and safeguarding the peninsula’s peace and stability accords with all parties’ mutual interests, is the responsibility of all parties, and requires all parties to put forth efforts.

Hua Chunying

The broadcast barrage follows claims from the North on Wednesday that it carried out a test on a small hydrogen bomb. Skeptics continued to pour doubt on the claims, saying the seismic waves were identical to those created by another test in 2013. Nonetheless, the South, which had agreed to stop the broadcasts following peace talks in August, turned back on the speakers yesterday. The sound can carry for 10 km (6 miles) into North Korea during the day and more than twice that at night, it is claimed. Another message said Kim’s policy to boost both the economy and its nuclear program was unrealistic.