World

From Propaganda To Folk Music: North Korea Changes Its Tune At The DMZ

REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Ryan Pickrell China/Asia Pacific Reporter
Font Size:

With an unsteady peace hanging over the Korean Peninsula, things are changing at the tense border that divides North and South Korea.

North Korea has decided to change up its playlist, exchanging depressing propaganda music and militaristic speeches for choral and folk music, according to ABC News. “Instead of a lot of the hard-line speeches, it has gotten softer,” Lt. Cmdr. Daniel McShane, a U.N. Command duty officer, told reporters. “We’ve been hearing a lot more music, and a lot of it has been more classical, especially at night.”

North Korea is apparently not the only one switching things up at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). South Korea has turned down its loudspeakers blasting counter-North Korean propaganda, according to Yonhap News Agency.

The DMZ, a heavily-fortified stretch of land that separates the two Koreas, has been described as the “scariest place on earth.” At the border, dueling loudspeakers blare propaganda at all hours of the night. The South regularly, as part of a psychological warfare campaign, uses its loudspeakers to blast news and information into the North.

Some of the military personnel at the DMZ claim they can recite North Korean speeches by memory because they have heard them many times over the years.

ALSO WATCH: North Korean Soldier Defects At The DMZ

But, the situation is a little different now that North and South Korea are talking again.

After a year of ignoring South Korea’s requests for dialogue and testing ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs, North Korean dictator suddenly offered to engage the South in dialogue during his New Year’s address last month.

The two sides have since met multiple times at the border and restored dormant diplomatic hotlines. North Korea agreed to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where the two sides not only marched together in the opening ceremony while carrying a unified Korea banner but also fielded a unified Olympic team.

While the South Korean government sees the Olympics as an opportunity for engagement and peace, North Korea’s intentions are a little less clear. Some observers suspect that North Korea’s peaceful overtures are decidedly less than friendly.

Follow Ryan on Twitter

Freedom of Speech Isn’t Free
The Daily Caller News Foundation is working hard to balance out the biased American media. For as little as $3, you can help us. Make a one-time donation to support the quality, independent journalism of TheDCNF. We’re not dependent on commercial or political support and we do not accept any government funding.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel