Residents gather at a shelter in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, after being evacuated from their homes following shelling by North Korea, Thursday. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye

After exchanging fire on the western border on Thursday, North Korea warned the South that "military action" will occur if Seoul does not stop its propaganda campaign within 48 hours.

South Korea is likely to make its decision regarding the broadcasts as early as today depending on how the North reacts.

A high-ranking official from the Ministry of Defense said no decision has been made concerning the physiological warfare operation that has delivered outside news to North Korean soldiers and border-area residents.

Pyongyang claimed that Seoul's resumption of the broadcasts amounted to a "proclamation of war."

The belligerent state has reacted sensitively to the campaign, apparently fearing that the broadcasts could induce soldiers and residents to flee to the South.

Some North Korean defectors have testified that they decided to escape the North after listening to broadcasts from the South.

Moon Sung-mook, a retired Army brigade general who is now a senior researcher at the Korea Research Institute for Strategy, said: "North Korean soldiers who fled to the South have said that soldiers in the North's frontline units secretly have new recruits sing songs of the South. If this testimony is true, the broadcasts can be a main factor to shake the basis of the North."

He said the main purpose of the broadcasts is to give information, not slander the North, because North Korean residents and soldiers can hardly learn about outside news.

Female defectors from North Korea are also participating in loudspeaker broadcasting to the North's frontline units.

"They are telling about their experience of defection and life in the South to North Korean soldiers and border-area residents," an official of the Ministry of National Defense said.

Seoul is conducting the broadcasts from 11 places near the Inter-Korean border for the first time in 11 years.

The measure began on Aug. 10 in retaliation for Pyongyang's landmine explosion inside the Demilitarized Zone that maimed two South Korean officers on Aug. 4.

The official said broadcasts by the female defectors are being aired from all 11 locations.

Other propaganda being broadcast includes the purge of the North's high-ranking military officials, the superiority of democracy, international news, weather information and music.

Broadcasting times and lengths are irregular to heighten the effect of the psychological warfare.

On Aug. 15, the North Korean People's Army warned against the South's resumption of the broadcasting, saying, "We will fire indiscriminately."

South Korean officials have detected signs that North Korean frontline soldiers are training in an apparent bid to destroy the loudspeakers.

Pyongyang's frontline units have resumed anti-South broadcasting in an apparent effort to drown out the sound from the South.

The two Koreas agreed to suspend the broadcasts in 2004 during general-level military talks.

But Seoul announced a plan to resume the broadcasting in 2010 after Pyongyang's deadly torpedoing of the South Korean Navy frigate Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. At the time, the North threatened to shoot at the speakers and the broadcasting did not resume.