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Rival parties split over resumption of anti-NK loudspeaker

South Korea’s ruling and opposition parties showed mixed responses Friday to the country’s resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts in retaliation of North Korea’s latest nuclear test.

The ruling Saenuri Party welcomed the government’s decision to resume broadcasts and that the Seoul government should immediately counter against North Korea’ further provocations in the future.

“It is a just measure for the government to resume anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts from 12 p.m.,” said Won Yoo-cheol, the party’s floor leader, during a meeting of party members.

On Friday, South Korea re-started its cross-border loudspeaker broadcasts carrying anti-North Korea messages in about four months in retaliation against North Korea’s claimed hydrogen bomb test earlier this week.

Won also claimed on Thursday that the country should consider creating its own nuclear potential for self-defense.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea said that resuming the broadcasts across the border is not the ultimate solution to the North’s provocations.

“(The decision) may intensify military tensions between the South and North or even result in the outcome of amplifying uncertainties amid the difficult economic situation,” said Chairman Moon Jae-in during a meeting of senior party members.

Moon also denounced Won’s idea of arming the country with nuclear devices, saying that the Korean Peninsula should be denuclearized.

Meanwhile, a local researcher of inter-Korean relations said that South Koreans should endure possible shelling from the North.

“North Korea did not think of the nuclear issue as a bargaining tool for negotiations from the start,” said Kim Young-cheol, a researcher at the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, urging the Seoul government to come up with elaborate countermeasures. (Yonhap)