Anadolu staff
12 June 2025•Update: 12 June 2025
ANKARA
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Thursday vowed to "stop the exhausting hostilities" with North Korea and resume inter-Korean dialogue and collaboration, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported.
"We will swiftly restore a crisis management system that prevents accidental clashes and avoids escalating tensions," Lee said, adding: "To that end, we will make efforts to quickly restore the suspended inter-Korean communication channels."
"I will make every effort to promote peace, coexistence and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula," the president said. His remarks were conveyed through a speech delivered by Woo Sang-ho, the presidential secretary for political affairs.
Remarks from Lee came after North Korea stopped its loudspeaker broadcasts along the border with South Korea late Wednesday, a day after Seoul halted its own anti‑Pyongyang campaign, according to the news agency.
“There are no areas where such broadcasts are being detected,” the agency quoted Col. Lee Sung‑jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying. “They ceased late Wednesday and clearly did not take place in the early hours or in the morning.”
The military is continuing to monitor North Korea’s activities near the border, he added.
South Korea’s decision to end its year‑long loudspeaker campaign came on orders from newly elected President Lee Jae‑myung, who took office Wednesday and called for steps to reduce tensions and rebuild trust between the two sides.
Pyongyang has not yet confirmed the halt in its broadcasts, which were last heard late Wednesday night, according to South Korean officials.
The rival loudspeaker campaigns, often used to deliver propaganda, have long been a source of friction along the demilitarized zone separating the two countries.
