First they went silent,... and now the speakers are being pulled out.
South Korea has already moved to fulfil one of the tension-reducing measures in the Panmunjom Declaration between the two Koreas,... dismantling the loudspeakers that used to blare out anti-regime slogans along the DMZ.
North Korea is also sticking to its side of the bargain.
Park Jiwon reports.
South Korea's defense ministry has begun dismantling the anti-North Korean regime loudspeakers set up along the demilitarized zone on the inter-Korean border.
There are about 40 loudspeakers along the border line that spans some two hundred and fifty kilometers,... and this was the first speaker dismantled on Tuesday afternoon.
The South Korean defense ministry said that dismantling all the speakers will take more time,... considering regional and climatic conditions.
This removal is part of efforts to implement the Panmunjom Declaration, in which the two sides agreed to stop all hostile acts from May 1st, and to eliminate the means to perform such acts,... including broadcasting messages through loudspeakers and distributing leaflets in the areas along the demilitarized zone.
And military officials here in Seoul said Tuesday afternoon,... that North Korea also appears to have begun removing its loudspeakers,... as a follow-up measure to the agreement.

"The loudspeakers have a long history of sometimes being removed and sometimes set up again,... according to the changing dynamics of inter-Korean relations."

South Korea first started broadcasting messages to the North using the loudspeakers along the border in 1963,... 55 years ago.
In 2004,... the broadcasts were suspended and speakers were removed,... following the June 15th South-North Joint Declaration.
But in 2010,... the loudspeakers were reinstalled again,... after a North Korean torpedo sank the South Korean warship Cheonan,... and the broadcasts resumed in 2015,... after two South Korean soldiers were wounded by a land mine in the DMZ.
The broadcasts were suspended later that year,... after two Koreas' agreement.
The current loudspeaker broadcasts began back in January 2016,... in response to North Korea's fourth nuclear test.
Despite the moves to dismantle the speakers, South Korea's defense ministry assured the public that the military is maintaining its utmost readiness and preparedness, while doing its best to carry out the measures of Friday's historic agreement.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News.