South Korea has begun removing speakers used to blast democratic propaganda and K-pop music across the border.

The country’s new liberal government said it was a “practical measure” to ease tensions with communist North Korea.

Daily broadcasts had resumed last summer in retaliation for thousands of rubbish-filled balloons being sent in Seoul’s direction.

Officials said at the time it would send a message of “hope and light to the North’s troops and its people” and claimed the sound travelled up to 15 miles at night.

However, hardline conservative president Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted this year and successor Lee Jae Myung has promised to improve relations.

The broadcasts on the 150-mile border stopped in June and now the speakers are being taken down.

Defence ministry spokesperson Lee Kyung-ho, speaking on Monday, did not say where the equipment was going or if it could be quickly redeployed if needed.

North Korea has not commented on the move – but Kim Jong Un‘s sister last week rebuffed the South’s more conciliatory approach.

Kim Yo Jong said Seoul’s “blind trust” in ties with the US – with whom it has conducted joint military drills – meant the new government was no different.

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Korea was split into communist and democratic countries after the Second World War, and fought its own war from 1950-1952 that led to the deaths of three million people.

The South has turned itself into a high-tech economic powerhouse in the decades since.

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North Korea, meanwhile, runs a totalitarian regime with its people shut off from the world and enduring widespread poverty.

Kim Jong Un has fostered closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years in order to support his economic and military ambitions and has even sent troops to fight in the Ukraine war.