South Korean Government Removes 48 Speakers Blasting Girls' Generation, Big Bang At The Border Following Agreement With Pyongyang

Meet South Korea's latest weapons in their 67-year-old turf war with the north--Girls' Generation and Big Bang.

Though the 48 speakers blasting K-pop, along with anti-North Korea propaganda in the demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea have been taken down as of Tuesday morning local time, the unique tactic appears to have had a major effect.

Originally prompted by two South Korean soldiers badly injured by a North Korean box mine, the supersized PA system and the resulting backlash it caused led to the first exchange of artillery and rocket fire across the border in five years on Friday the New York Times reports.

"The North is desperate to stop loudspeaker broadcasts because they can undermine the morale of front-line North Korean troops and its military's psychological preparedness," Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst at Seoul's Sejong Institute told the publication.

According to the Washington Post, the sonic assault included the 2009 Girls' Generation song "Tell Me Your Wish" and female speaker deriding North Korea's isolation from the international community, offering examples like Kim Jong Un failing to meet with a single foreign dignitary since taking over for his father as the nation's "supreme leader" in 2011.

Korean entertainment website Koreaboo reports Big Bang's June 1 release "Bang Bang Bang" and Noh Sa Yeon's 1989 hit "Meeting" were also blasted at the border.

Under the new agreement between the two countries, reached after three days of tense negotiations which even had US defense officials reviewing potential war scenarios according to CNN, South Korea agreed to remove their K-pop-blasting sound system after North Korean diplomats apologized for the injuries to the two South Korean servicemen.

"During the meeting, it is very meaningful in the aspect that the North apologized over the landmine incident and that they agreed on making efforts to prevent such incidents from reoccurring and easing tension," South Korean national security chief Kim Kwan Jin told the state-run Yonhap News Agency on Monday.

This was not the first time the South Korean government threatened to weaponize K-pop.

Back in 2010, speakers were installed at 11 locations after North Korean naval soldiers torpedoed the country's Cheonan warship killing 46 seamen, but they were reportedly never used until earlier this month.

According to South Korean nuclear negotiator Chun Yung Woo, a man with extensive experience practicing diplomacy with the North Koreans, the speakers on the border could be the most effective way to fight the North Korean regime his country has come up with yet.

"For the North Koreans, the broadcasts are dangerous because this is about the survival of the regime," he said. "They are worried that this could destroy the soldiers' loyalty to the 'supreme leader' and shake their faith in the system that's central to regime survival."

As part of the negotiations, officials agreed to have another meeting to discuss other urgent matters in Seoul or Pyongyang, at a yet-to-be disclosed time.

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Girls Generation
Big Bang
SNSD
South Korea
South Korean Army
North Korea
north korea kim jong-un
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