South launches anti -North broadcasts

South Korea yesterday resumed high-decibel propaganda broadcasts into North Korea as the United States ramped up pressure on China to bring Pyongyang to heel after its latest nuclear test.

While North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un celebrated his 32nd birthday, the international community scrambled to find common ground on how best to penalise his regime following its shock announcement two days ago that it had successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb.

The cross-border broadcasts blare out an eclectic mix of everything from K-pop and weather forecasts to snippets of news and critiques of the North Korean regime.

Among the songs on the playlist was "Bang, Bang, Bang" a recent hit by A-list K-pop boy band, Big Bang. Their resumption revives psychological warfare tactics that date back to the 1950-53 Korean War. But they can be remarkably effective.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday urged South Korea to "be bigger" than the North as it renewed propaganda broadcasts through massive loudspeakers at the border in response to Pyongyang's nuclear test.

"North Korea acts in a totally irresponsible and provocative way, and I can entirely understand the pressure that the South Koreans feel to respond," Hammond told reporters on a visit to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, docked at the Yokosuka Naval Base southwest of Tokyo.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to take a tougher line with North Korea after its latest nuclear test, warning in a call to his Beijing counterpart Thursday that it cannot be "business as usual."

"Now China had a particular approach that it wanted to make and we agreed and give them time to implement that," he said, describing his call to China's foreign minister Wang Yi.