2nd LD Writethru: S. Korea's military issues highest alert in areas with propaganda loudspeakers

South Korea's military has issued the highest alert in frontline areas, where propaganda loudspeakers are installed, a day before its planned resumption of the broadcasting across the border toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Yonhap news agency reported Thursday citing the defense ministry.

A defense ministry official was quoted as saying that troops in around 10 locations, installed with the propaganda loudspeakers, had been put on the highest alert, and that much more surveillance assets had been deployed near the locations.

The additional deployment included unnamed reconnaissance aircraft, anti-tank tow missiles, anti-aircraft defense devices and counter-battery radars.

The issuance of the highest defense readiness came as the country announced its plan to resume the propaganda broadcasting through loudspeakers from Friday noon in protest against the DPRK's fourth nuclear test Wednesday. The DPRK said it had successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb.

The resumption is expected to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula as Pyongyang denounced it as a "direct act of declaring war." The restarted broadcast in August last year resulted in the DPRK warning of a reckless strike against loudspeakers.

The broadcasting has been stopped since Aug. 25, 2015 when the two sides agreed to lower tensions after marathon talks between top-level military advisors to their respective leaders.

Amid growing fears for possible DPRK provocations against the loudspeakers, the South Korean military raised its defense readiness in frontline units installed with the loudspeakers.

The ministry official was quoted as saying that the loudspeakers would be protected from the DPRK's direct strike as they are concealed in bunkers.

Meanwhile, the military plans to deploy six mobile loudspeakers placed on trucks, which can send sound some 10 km farther than conventional fixed loudspeakers. Enditem