Seoul: South Korea announced on Monday the dismantling of loudspeakers along the border with North Korea, marking President Lee Jae Myung's initial move to ease tensions and pursue dialogue after years of escalating hostilities. This decision involves the removal of loudspeakers that were used to broadcast K-pop and news reports to the North, as the new administration in Seoul seeks to improve relations with its northern neighbor.

According to France24.com, South Korea and North Korea, still technically at war, had already ceased propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone. This cessation followed the election of President Lee Jae Myung, with Seoul's military noting in June that Pyongyang had stopped transmitting unsettling noises along the border—a major nuisance for South Korean locals—just a day after South Korea's loudspeakers were silenced.

While the exact number of loudspeakers to be removed was not disclosed, a report by Yonhap news agency, which the defense ministry declined to verify, suggested the figure to be around 20. Photos distributed by the ministry depicted soldiers wearing body armor as they unloaded sets of speakers.

Newly elected President Lee directed the military to cease the broadcasts, aiming to "restore trust" between the two nations. Relations between North and South Korea had reached a low point, with Seoul previously adopting a hardline stance towards Pyongyang, especially as the North drew closer to Moscow following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, the two Koreas engaged in a propaganda battle, with North Korea launching thousands of trash-filled balloons southward in retaliation against South Korean activists sending propaganda balloons northward. In response, South Korea's then-president Yoon Suk Yeol ordered loudspeaker broadcasts of K-pop tunes and international news at the border, prompting North Korea to start transmitting strange sounds that unsettled South Korean residents.

Since his election in June, President Lee has adopted a different strategy in dealing with North Korea, including requesting civic groups to halt the sending of anti-North propaganda leaflets. "We have strongly urged civic groups to halt leaflet activities in order to foster peace and ensure the safety of residents in border areas," stated Koo Byung-sam, spokesman for the Unification Ministry, during a press briefing on Monday.

President Lee has expressed his intention to seek talks with North Korea without preconditions, following a period of strained relations under his predecessor. Despite these diplomatic gestures, North Korea has dismissed the idea of pursuing dialogue with the South. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, remarked last week, "If the ROK... expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is more serious miscalculation than it," using South Korea's official name.

The two Koreas technically remain at war, as the Korean War (1950-53) ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.