S Korea halts propaganda radio broadcasts

South Korea has stopped broadcasting propaganda radio programming into the North, the defence ministry said yesterday, the latest move by Seoul's new administration to ease tensions with its nuclear-armed neighbour.

The psychological warfare radio -- the Voice of Freedom -- was first aired in 1962 and had been on and off the airwaves through the ups and downs of inter-Korean relations over more than half a century.

"The defence ministry suspended the Voice of Freedom broadcast as part of measures to ease military tensions with the North," ministry spokesman Lee Kyung-ho told reporters yesterday.

It is the latest in a series of moves by the new Lee Jae Myung administration, which has vowed to seek dialogue with Pyongyang.

South Korea has also stopped broadcasting propaganda from loudspeakers along the heavily-armed border and has even taken down some of the physical loudspeakers.

Voice of Freedom was said to broadcast outside information and K-pop music into the nuclear armed North, which tightly controls the access its civilians have to external content.

It was last pulled off air in 2004 during a period of rapprochement between the two, but was resumed in 2010 in the wake of the North's torpedo attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan that left 46 sailors dead. Since taking office in June, President Lee has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed North and has vowed to build "military trust" with Pyongyang.

But North Korea has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul, a key regional security ally of Washington. It has called Lee a "hypocrite" over his remarks calling for a "path to denuclearisation".

Lee had "pretended that he had a will to restore the relations" with North Korea, but had revealed "his true colours as a confrontation maniac" and a "hypocrite" with his recent remarks," Pyongyang's official KCNA said on Wednesday.