South Korea resumes propaganda broadcasts after nuke test by North

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged China, the North’s only major ally and its biggest aid provider, to end “business as usual” with North Korea.

It was so popular among young and old that Kakao Talk, South Korea’s most popular messenger app, created emoticons, or animated images, from the music video.

Among the sanctions lifted were those related to sending money to the impoverished nation as well as mutual visits by nationals of the two nations.

Both sides agreed to maintain communication over the issue.

The cross-border broadcasts blare out an eclectic mix of everything from K-pop and weather forecasts to snippets of news and critiques of the North Korean regime.

Early in the broadcast, the South criticised the North’s claim on Wednesday to have conducted its first hydrogen bomb test.

Outside experts are skeptical the blast was a hydrogen bomb, but even a test of an atomic bomb would push North Korea closer to building a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a long-range missile.

Seoul and Tokyo share military intelligence through Washington as the two countries failed to strike a deal on sharing bilateral intelligence in 2012 due to negative sentiment among South Koreans about signing such a deal with the former colonial ruler. Although in recent years there has been an increase of outside information entering the country through the porous border with China.

The South has raised its military alert to the highest level in areas near the loudspeakers, and has also stepped up its cyber security level.

“My restaurant is only a few kilometers from the border to the North, and that was the marketing point”, Kim Eun Joo, a resident of the city of Paju, said in a phone interview.

The broadcasts began at midday local time (0300 UTC) Friday, the same day which is believed to be the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

South Korea and Japan are cooperating closely on North Korea provocations, following Pyongyang’s announcement.

North Korea also said it was capable of miniaturising the hydrogen bomb, in theory allowing it to be placed on a missile and threatening the U.S. West Coast, South Korea and Japan.

The three deputy ministers agreed that Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test was in clear breach of the UN Security Council resolutions and a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region. Various governments have expressed skepticism that it was in fact a hydrogen bomb, and guessed that it was perhaps a less powerful traditional nuclear bomb, but North Korea will amp up the hydrogen bomb propaganda to its people. Chinese public opinion, too, is growing increasingly negative toward what many regard as an estranged neighbor.

But Beijing has been reluctant to take drastic measures that might create instability on its border.

The source with contacts in Pyongyang said North Korea was already largely cut off from the world after decades of sanctions, and more would not work.

The United States overestimates China’s economic influence on the North, said a second academic at Yanbian University, who looks at relations between China and North Korea.