North Korea made the planet very angry when it conducted yet another nuclear test this week. (North Korea says it was an “H-bomb of justice”; most experts think they’re exaggerating.)
Now world leaders are trying to devise the most effective way to punish Kim Jong-un for breaking the rules. The U.N. Security Council is thinking up “significant measures,” and the United States is working with South Korea and Japan to think of additional ways to deal with the isolated and fractious nation. The world might be running out of options; there are only so many ways you can sanction a country.
Meanwhile, South Korea is set to begin carrying out the most terrifying vengeance it can imagine — something that has worked very well against its northern neighbor.
The country is pulling out its dozens of speakers.
And it will play K-Pop and propaganda until North Korea has learned a lesson.
The loudspeakers will start playing at noon on Friday — Kim Jong-un’s birthday. If that doesn’t work, South Korea might also drop democracy-pushing pamphlets, too.
However, the loudspeakers have a history of working. Back before 2004, the Koreas were basically in a speaker stalemate, routinely blasting radio broadcasts at each other until they decided to try not being so miserable toward each other for awhile. This August, South Korea fired the speakers up for the first time in forever, after a land-mine incident injured two South Korean soldiers. The music and propaganda drove North Korea so crazy that they threatened to go to war if the “psychological warfare” didn’t stop. Two weeks later North Korea promised to be nicer, and the countries agreed to let relatives separated by the Korean War continue to hold reunions.
One of the messages that was blasted at North Korea during the last loudspeaker offensive was, “Kim Jong-un’s incompetent regime is trying to deceive the world with its lame lies,” per the Washington Post. The songs played have lyrics like, “Tell me your wish, tell me your little dream, imagine your ideal type in your head, and look at me, I’m your genie, your dream, your genie.”
