Loudspeaker broadcasts at DMZ could be effective tool against North: Experts

Loudspeakers blaring condemnations of the North Korean regime will likely be effective psychological warfare tools and a deterrent to Pyongyang’s aggressive behavior, according to South Korean security experts.

South Korean soldiers dismantle loudspeakers installed at an observatory in Mount Odu near the border and the demilitarized zone in Gyeonggi in 2004. [YONHAP]

Loudspeakers blaring condemnations of the North Korean regime will likely be effective psychological warfare tools and a deterrent to Pyongyang’s aggressive behavior, according to South Korean security experts.

Pyongyang said Sunday it will "temporarily halt" sending trash-filled balloons across the border, five hours after Seoul warned of a possible resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts along the inter-Korean border as an “unendurable measure.”

The South’s experts believe the North’s recent decision shows the regime's unease with the inflow of ideas from the outside world that could undermine the legitimacy of leader Kim Jong-un and his government.

Pyongyang has made efforts to shut down any influx of foreign influences to protect the country from external factors.

In this regard, the loudspeakers airing messages condemning Kim's authoritarian rule could discourage and dishearten the North’s soldiers by exposing them to the South’s liberal ideas, thoughts and cultural content.

The audio broadcasts could shake up North Koreans and pose a critical threat to Kim in maintaining tight control over his people.

“The authority of Kim Jong-un could collapse at once because of information broadcasts since word travels fast,” Ryu Hyun-woo, a North Korean defector who formerly served as Pyongyang’s acting ambassador to Kuwait, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday.

“The South could destroy the spirit of the North’s combatants and make them unable to fight by winning the hearts and minds of soldiers stationing in the border areas with the broadcasts,” Ryu added. Tae Yong-ho, a defector who served as the North’s former deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom and a lawmaker in the South Korean National Assembly, said South Korean songs and news have a "significant impact" on the North's soldiers and that it is easy to see retired soldiers humming South Korean pop songs.

Tae added that South Korean trot songs are “catchy” for lonely on-duty soldiers starving to death in the dark.

The loudspeakers can convey broadcast materials to regions as far away as 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 18 miles) from the Military Demarcation Line.

The speakers are also believed to be a more consistent means of fighting the North’s provocations as they are less affected by weather conditions than balloons, which are largely dependent on wind direction and atmospheric conditions.

Loudspeaker broadcasts started in 1963 and continued until 2016, right after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test.

A total of 40 loudspeakers installed at 10 spots along the inter-Korean border broadcast K-pop songs and anti-North speeches denouncing Kim and praising democracy. They were ultimately dismantled in 2018 during the liberal Moon Jae-in administration.

The move was in keeping with the inter-Korean Panmunjom Declaration of April 2018, which called for the two Koreas "to stop all the hostile acts including the loud-speaker broadcasting and scattering of leaflets in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line."

A South Korean soldier operates a broadcasting machine to air vocal messages through loudspeakers installed along the inter-Korean border in northern Gyeonggi in Jan. 2016. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Loudspeaker operations largely depended on inter-Korean tension. The loudspeakers remained silent when the two Koreas were in a reconciliatory mode and began airing anti-regime messages when tensions intensified.

During the conservative Park Geun-hye administration, loudspeakers were assessed as an effective tool for inducing the regime into negotiations and peace talks.

In 2015, when two South Korean soldiers were injured after stepping on a landmine planted by the North in the demilitarized zone (DMZ), Seoul’s Defense Ministry resumed the loudspeaker broadcasting, which made Pyongyang offer to negotiate first.

Some experts said that the North’s recent abandonment of the long-continued perspective of treating South Koreans as a partner for unification demonstrates the regime’s insecurity toward South Korean or liberal influences.

Last December, Kim referred to the two Koreas as “two hostile countries in a state of war,” distancing himself from his father and grandfather’s stance of considering the people of the two Koreas in a “fraternal relationship.”

However, under the current legal structure, Seoul cannot directly resume loudspeaker broadcasting. The country should resolve the legal ambiguity internally.

The current Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act prohibits the distribution of anti-North visuals and leaflets and such broadcasting.

Although the Supreme Court ruled that the law has an unconstitutional element, the verdict only governs the circulation of printed materials. The nation’s top court did not judge on using loudspeakers.

Strictly speaking, operating loudspeakers violates the letter of the law.

As the act was based on the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement and Panmunjom Declaration, experts believe the accords must be partially or wholly suspended and the act should be amended to greenlight the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts.

The act stipulates that the president can wholly or partially suspend inter-Korean agreements if any material changes occur between the two Koreas or if such measures are needed for national security. Such suspension can free the country from the obligation of not engaging in military actions.

On Monday, the South Korean government said it would raise a motion to suspend the 2018 military agreement at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

South Korean National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin said in a Sunday briefing that South Korea’s responsive measures will be “heightened” if the North’s “provocations continue and repeat.”

A media report from the JoongAng Ilbo said that the South’s military could intensify surveillance capabilities using South Korea-U.S. alliance assets and employ mechanisms for extended deterrence.

BY LEE KEUN-PYUNG, PARK HYUN-JU, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]