NEW DELHI: South Korea is "getting ready for the worst case scenario," the country's Defense Ministry said on Monday following North Korea’s claims that it tested a nuclear warhead last week. The test is Pyongyang’s second nuclear test this year and perhaps the most powerful till date, with the country having tested nuclear bombs at least five times.
"We assess that (North Korea) is prepared for a nuclear test in another shaft," Defense Minister Han Min-koo said. His spokesperson said on Monday that if another nuclear test happened, it could come from a second or third site at Punggye-ri, where Friday's test took place. The spokesperson added that South Korea is planning on resuming propaganda broadcasts along the border with North Korea some time in November.
Key amongst these broadcasts is the playing on K-Pop, i.e South Korean pop music. The music, along with news reports and anti-communist propaganda, will be broadcast using a large block of speakers complete with a video display. The speakers will be heard from over 30 kilometers away.
This is not the first time South Korea is using the novel, if strange, idea to counter North Korea. It resumed the broadcasts earlier this year in January after Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test.
The broadcasts have in the past contributed to tensions between the two neighbouring countries, with negotiations aimed at steering tensions away from the threat of military confrontation last year culminating in South Korea agreeing to stop the broadcasts along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
At the time in 2015, the confrontation got so heated that Seoul fired dozens of artillery rounds across the border in response to what it said was North Korean artillery strikes aimed at attacking the loudspeakers.
As the deal was announced, the world breathed a sigh of relief as it diffused the risk of confrontation where North Korea had doubled its artillery forces on the front lines and ordered most of its submarines out from their bases.
North Korea also restarted its own loudspeakers, but reports suggest that quality was so bad that the messages were inaudible.
At that time, the contentious speakers were restarted after an 11 year hiatus, as in 2004 the two countries reached a deal to dismantle all propaganda loudspeakers along the border. They made their return in 2015 after South Korea began blaring messages as a response to Pyongyang planting landmines along the DMZ that injured two South Korean soldiers. North Korea denied planting the mines, and it was the country’s eventual willingness to express “regret” over the incident that made a deal possible.
However, a few months after the deal, the speakers made a return in January, and may be back once again in November. Further, as analysts suspect that the recent nuclear test is by no means North Korea’s last, the speakers may become somewhat of a permanent fixture.