South Korea resumes anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea retaliated for North Korea’s nuclear test with broadcasts of anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the rival’s tense border Friday, believed to be the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The broadcasts will draw a furious response from North Korea, which considers them an act of psychological warfare. Pyongyang is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian leadership of Kim, the third member of his family to rule. When South Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, Seoul said the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire, followed by threats of war.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that frontline troops, near 11 sites where propaganda loudspeakers started blaring messages at noon, were on highest alert. Yonhap said Seoul had deployed missiles, artillery and other weapons systems near the border to swiftly deal with any possible North Korean provocation. South Korea’s Defense Ministry couldn’t confirm the reports. South Korean military banned foreign media from the border ahead of the broadcasts.

There was no immediate reaction by the North, but its response could be especially harsh because of the high emotions surrounding the likely birthday of Kim, who is believed to be in his early 30s. North Korean military forces often compete to show their loyalty to the leader. The North’s state media has yet to mention Kim’s birthday or South Korea’s loudspeaker campaign.

The broadcasts include popular Korean pop songs, world news and weather forecasts as well as criticism of the North’s nuclear test, its troubled economy and dire human rights conditions, according to Seoul’s Defense Ministry. Included are songs by a young female singer, IU, whose sweet, girlish voice might be aimed at North Korean soldiers deployed near the border.

It may take weeks or longer to confirm or refute the North’s claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal. Even a test of an atomic bomb, a less sophisticated and less powerful weapon, would push its scientists and engineers closer to their goal of building a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a missile that can reach the U.S. mainland.

Later Friday, South Korea was to announce the results of its first round of investigations of samples collected from sea operations to see if radioactive elements leaked from the North’s test, according to the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety.

President Barack Obama has spoken to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and reaffirmed the “unshakeable U.S. commitment” to the security of the two Asian allies.

South Korean and U.S. military leaders also discussed the deployment of U.S. “strategic assets” in the wake of the North’s test, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Ministry officials refused to elaborate about what U.S. military assets were under consideration, but they likely refer to B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and nuclear-powered submarines.