Some North Korean loudspeakers at the inter-Korean border are pointed toward the North, not the South, a South Korean network reported on Sunday.Recently, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff asked for professional advice from a sound engineering researcher as to why some North Korean loudspeakers are facing Northern direction, SBS reported.The company raised the possibility North Korea may have improvised a new “sound-masking effect” to more effectively dilute the content coming from South Korean loudspeakers.“The concept of the sound-masking effect is very simple,” a sound engineering researcher told NK News under the condition of anonymity.“The effect is to counter the sound wave by projecting another sound.”Since the resumption of South Korean loudspeakers about 10 days ago, North Korea has poured its efforts into countering South Korean speakers by setting up their own speakers along the inter-Korean border.But according to the Ministry of National Defense’s report, North Korean speakers are only audible anywhere from 1 km to 3 km away due their having comparatively smaller power.“The sound coming from South Korean loudspeakers would naturally die away as it traveled over distance. But North Koreas’ speakers would die away even faster as their volume output is smaller than South Koreans’,” said the researcher.
“North Koreans may have learned that their sound waves would never reach the South, so Pyongyang could have changed their tactic by shooting their own broadcasts toward in the Northern direction to prevent South Korean content from flowing into North Korea.”Jang Yong-seok, researcher from Institute for Peace and Unification Studies questioned the effectiveness of carrying out a propaganda war using loudspeakers.“In processing psychological warfare, we should change the perception of North Korean elites. But with the loudspeakers’ having limited distance, the effectiveness of such method can be questioned.Best propaganda would be leading North Korea in to more opened society, as social structural changes would also bring changes to one’s perception on their surroundings.”During the phone call on Monday, Joint Chief of Staff public relations office refused to give clear answers to NK News, as to whether the local media’s claim on changed direction of the speakers is true or not.However, during the press briefing on Monday, South Korean MND spokesperson Kim Min-seok announced that “most” of the North Korean speakers are facing South, indicating that SBS’s analysis might not be entirely true.The spokesperson also added that it is estimated that North Korea has sent more than 1 million leaflets to South Korea, since the first leaflets were found in South Korea last Wednesday.
source:nknews.org
