K-propaganda? South Korea supposedly blasts K-pop music over loudspeakers

Tensions between North Korea and South Korea escalated last week and the two neighbouring countries are at ‘quasi state of war’, fuelled by something as supposedly innocuous as loudspeaker broadcasts. It all began when South Korea blamed the North for land mine explosions that maimed two South Korean soldiers. In retaliation they resumed propaganda broadcasts, a practice stopped in 2004, for the first time in 11 years. North Korea had denied the accusations and threatened to launch strikes on South Korean loudspeakers. Soon after South Korea’s resumption of broadcasts, North Korea began its own loudspeaker campaign along the border. [caption id=“attachment_2405288” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of South Korean soldiers takeing down a battery of propaganda loudspeakers on the border with North Korea in 2004. AFP[/caption] However, it seems that propaganda is not the only thing on the agenda. According to The Independent, one of the things blasting out of the loudspeakers at the border is music, specifically K-pop. Yeah, it looks like pop music is one of the bones of contention between the two countries. K-pop is a genre of music originating in South Korea that is characterized by a wide variety of audiovisual elements. For those who don’t know, the most popular example of K-pop would be the song Gangnam style by Psy that took the internet by storm in 2012. Another report by BBC, adds that the border loudspeakers have been blasting news bulletins, weather forecasts and music from the South. Although it doesn’t specify what kind of music this is, a fair guess would be K-pop considering it’s the most popular form of music in the country. Meanwhile, marathon negotiations are on between the top leaders of both countries. For the time being, the diplomacy has pushed aside amid heated warnings of imminent war, but South Korea’s military said North Korea continued to prepare for a fight, moving unusual numbers of troops to the border. Pyongyang is refusing to apologise for what Seoul says was a land mine attack earlier this month and then an artillery barrage last week. North Korea denies both attacks and demands that the South stop the propaganda broadcasts started in retaliation for the land mine explosions. With Agency inputs