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South Korea's K-pop-blaring loudspeakers turned off [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-06-11

After the election of a new president who campaigned on improving relations with the north, South Korea's propaganda-blasting loudspeakers on the border have fallen quiet. They were turned on again only recently, according to reports, after North Korea began flying thousands of balloons filled with trash over the border.

The speakers blared propaganda, but also pop music—a sharper taste of the pleasures to be found outside the hermit kingdom.

The playlist was clearly designed to strike the nerve of Pyongyang, as Kim's government since the COVID-19 pandemic has been intensifying a campaign to eliminate the influence of South Korean pop culture and language among the population in a bid to strengthen his family's dynastic rule.

Lee Jae-myung promised a more liberal government than that of outgoing conservatives, in disarray after president Yoon Suk Yeol's unsuccessful attempt to impose martial law and an unappetizing campaign by his acting replacement. Yoon's hardline position on the North left office with him; in his inaugural address, Lee said he would reopen negotiations with North Korea after years of mutual bickering.

The BBC reports that people living near the border were sick of the noise.

But residents living along the border have welcomed the move. They have for months complained that their lives have been blighted by the noise of the loudspeakers coming from both the South and North, sometimes in the middle of the night. One border region, Ganghwa county, said in a statement: "We hope this decision will lead to an end to North Korea's noise-based psychological warfare, allowing our residents to return to their normal daily lives."

In memory of the speakers, please enjoy this exemplary serving of K-pop.

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