South Korea says North Korea is installing its own loudspeakers along the border

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military on Monday said it’s detecting signs that North Korea is installing its own loudspeakers along their heavily armed border, a day after the South blared anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts over its speakers for the first time in years as the rivals engage in a Cold War-style psychological warfare.

The South’s resumption of its loudspeaker broadcasts on Sunday was in retaliation for the North sending over 1,000 balloons filled with trash and manure over the last couple of weeks. North Korea has described its balloon campaign as a response to South Korean civilian groups using balloons to fly anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border. Pyongyang has long condemned such activities as it’s extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of leader Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian rule.

The tit-for-tat over speakers and balloons has deepened tensions between the Koreas as talks over the North’s nuclear ambitions remain stalled.

In their latest nuclear planning talks in Seoul, U.S. and South Korean officials reviewed an undisclosed guideline mapping out their nuclear deterrence strategies to counter growing North Korean threats. They also discussed strengthening the allies’ combined military training involving strategic U.S. assets, the participants said in a news conference.

Cho Chang-rae, South Korea’s deputy defense minister for policy, and Vipin Narang, acting U.S. assistant secretary of defense for space policy, refused specific comment when asked to assess the threat posed by North Korea’s balloon activities.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately comment on the number of suspected North Korean speakers or where along the border they were spotted being