South Korea begins removing loudspeakers on border with North to reduce tensions

South Korea said Monday it has started removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports into the North, as a new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor.

The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul's military said in June after the election of President Lee Jae Myung.

It said in June that Pyongyang had stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean locals, a day after the South's loudspeakers fell silent.

"Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers," Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman of the South's Defense Ministry, told reporters Monday.

"It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military's state of readiness."

All loudspeakers set up along the border will be dismantled by the end of the week, he added, but did not disclose the exact number that would be removed.

President Lee, recently elected after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, had ordered the military to stop the broadcasts in a bid to "restore trust."

The previous government started the broadcasts last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang.