North and South Koreans are finally getting a break from blaring propaganda

The next time a North Korean soldier listens to banned K-pop music, it’ll be on his own terms.

North and South Korea began taking down the loudspeakers that broadcast propaganda across their border Tuesday, as they take baby steps toward reconciliation in the wake of Friday’s landmark summit.

The measure was announced during the historic meeting between South Korean leader Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, where both sides agreed to officially end the 68-year-long war and work toward denuclearizing the peninsula. Among the steps outlined in their joint declaration was a commitment to turn the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating their countries into a "peace zone” — including a halt to propaganda broadcasts.

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The two sides have been blasting propaganda at each other since the 1960s, when South Korea installed speakers at the border with the aim of aim of demoralizing enemy soldiers stationed there. The broadcasts, which typically criticize each other’s political systems while trumpeting the successes of their own, have continued for decades with only a few interruptions. In recent years, South Korea has featured K-pop, while the North has stuck to more conventional attacks on the capitalist South.

As a show of good will before last Friday’s summit, both sides agreed to halt the broadcasts. South Korea said the speakers were being taken down as a trust-building exercise, and has also called on private groups south of the border to stop sending leaflets into the North, an exercise seen by Pyongyang as a provocation.

In another small but symbolic step toward reconciliation, North Korea will move its clocks forward by half an hour on Saturday to bring about greater alignment with its neighbor. Kim suggested the move during Friday’s summit, reportedly telling Moon that he “felt bad” when he saw clocks on the wall showing different times in the two countries, according to the New York Times. “Why don’t we reunify our clocks first?” he said.

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Both sides have been saying all the right things ahead of President Donald Trump's high-stakes meeting with Kim, expected to take place sometime in the coming weeks. On Monday, Trump suggested the border as a suitable location for their meeting.

Friday’s feel-good summit has extended to the streets: According to research agency Realmeter, nearly 65 percent of South Koreans surveyed said they believed Pyongyang would denuclearize and keep the peace.

Cover image: South Korea on Monday, April 30, 2018, said it will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the tense border with North Korea. (Lim Tae-hoon/Newsis via AP, File)