South Korea halted the propaganda broadcasts it blares across the border with North Korea on Monday, aiming to set a positive tone ahead of the first summit in a decade between their leaders.
The gesture came after North Korea said on Saturday that it would immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests, scrap its nuclear test site and instead pursue economic growth and peace, a declaration welcomed be world leaders.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is due to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-In at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Friday.
“North Korea’s decision to freeze its nuclear programme is a significant decision for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a regular meeting at the Blue House on Monday.
South Korea’s propaganda broadcasts, which include a mix of news, Korean pop songs, an criticism of the North Korean regime, were stopped at midnight, the Defence Ministry in Seoul said. It didn’t specify if they would resume after the Kim-Moon summit.
It marks the first time in more than two years that the South’s broadcasts have fallen silent.
North Korea has its own propaganda loudspeakers at the border, but a Defence Ministry official said he could not verify that they had also stopped.
