Anchor: After the liberal Lee Jae-myung administration suspended loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts at the inter-Korean border that had continued over the past year, North Korea seems to have halted its own broadcasts. Attention now shifts to whether Seoul’s latest conciliatory gesture will set the stage for the restoration of a military agreement the two sides signed in 2018.
Our Choi You Sun reports.

Report: North Korea is believed to have stopped broadcasting loud noises toward the South Korean side of the border, apparently in response to the suspension of South Korea’s loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts on Wednesday.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said the North's transmissions of deafening white noise cannot be heard anywhere in the country, with an unnamed military official saying such broadcasts last came at around 11 p.m. Wednesday.

JCS spokesperson Lee Sung-joon added that the military intends to keep tabs on the situation to see whether the quiet persists.

The South Korean military suspended its loudspeaker broadcasts near the border as of 2 p.m. Wednesday on orders from President Lee Jae-myung, who promised during his campaign to halt the propaganda activity to ease tensions between the two Koreas.

The presidential office said the decision was part of efforts to restore trust between the two sides and move toward peace on the Korean Peninsula.

In another apparent conciliatory gesture, Seoul’s unification ministry on Monday asked civic groups to stop launching anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets north of the border.

South Korea had discontinued its loudspeaker broadcasts in 2018, but restarted them last June under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration in response to the North’s repeated trash balloon launches toward the South.

The two-way suspension of the broadcasts is considered a prelude to the fulfillment of Lee’s election pledge to restore the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement signed to defuse cross-border tensions.

President Lee said later on Thursday, during a ceremony marking  the 25th anniversary of a summit between the late President Kim Dae-jung and the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, that the nation needs to “cease exhaustive acts of hostility and revive dialogue and cooperation,” and pledged a change toward cooperation and reconciliation from conflict and confrontation.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.