South Korea on Tuesday dismantled huge loudspeakers used to blare anti-Pyongyang broadcasts and K-pop songs from its border with North Korea, as the South's president asked the United Nations to observe the North's planned closing of its nuclear testing site.
The dismantling of dozens of South Korean loudspeakers was in line with reconciliation steps the leaders of the rival Koreas set at their historic summit last Friday.
It was still unclear if such measures could bring permanent peace because no major breakthrough in the North Korean nuclear standoff was produced after the Korean summit.
South Korean soldiers disassembled loudspeakers at multiple front-line areas before pulling them away from the border, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry. A Ministry official, speaking anonymously citing department rules, gave no further details such as how long the dismantling work would continue.
South Korean media reported that Seoul detected signs that North Korea was taking similar steps on Tuesday. But the Defense Ministry says it cannot confirm the report.
Both Koreas before the summit had halted propaganda broadcasts along the 248-kilometer (154-mile) -long border. Cold War-era propaganda warfare had resurfaced in 2016 when tensions rose sharply after the North's fourth nuclear test. Seoul broadcast criticism of the North's abysmal human rights conditions, world news and weather forecasts as well as pop songs. The North broadcast anti-South messages and praises of its own political system.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suspended nuclear and missile tests and placed his nuclear program up for negotiation, but skepticism lingers about how serious he is and what disarmament steps he would eventually take.
Some experts say Kim's sincerity would be tested during his planned meeting with President Donald Trump in what would be the first-ever North Korea-US summit talks since the end of their fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Trump said yesterday he likes the idea of going to the southern side of Panmunjom, the place for the Korean summit, to meet Kim, though he said Singapore was also under consideration. He said Saturday that his meeting with Kim could happen in the next three to four weeks.
During yesterday's summit, Kim told South Korean President Moon that he would shut down his country's only known nuclear testing site in May and allow outside experts and journalists to watch the process.
Kim also said he would be willing to give up his nuclear programs if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and a pledge not to attack the North, according to South Korea's presidential office.