Why South Korea Turned Off Its Voice to North Korea

A Five-Decade Broadcast Legacy Ends

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service abruptly suspended all of its radio and TV broadcasts to North Korea in early October, just ten days after the new director took office. This move follows the military’s halt of loudspeaker broadcasts in June and mirrors the US VOA and RFA cuts under Trump, ending a state-run effort that began during the Korean War era. Many celebrated it as a peace gesture under President Lee’s policy, but others wonder what happens when the signal simply goes silent

An 80% Drop in Airwaves

According to the Stimson Center’s 38 North, daily North-focused broadcast hours plunged from 415 to just 89, and transmitting frequencies fell from 25 to 6 stations. KBS’s Hanminjok Radio and the Defense Ministry’s Voice of Freedom now carry most airtime, with private civic broadcasters scraping by. If those last state broadcasts end too, North Koreans may be left with only BBC Korean and a handful of NGO stations—hardly enough to pierce jamming signals

North Koreans’ Forbidden Ears

In a closed society where TV and newspapers only echo regime lines and the internet is off limits, smuggled radios are the lone conduit to the outside. Defectors recall tuning in by the dim glow of stoves, risking accusations of espionage to catch news that shatters official narratives. Analysts say roughly one in ten North Koreans has tried foreign broadcasts, craving facts and culture they’d never otherwise see—proof that even under threat, people hunger for truth

Peace Gesture or Dark Silence?

On Naver blogs, some hail the broadcast freeze as essential to thawing Seoul-Pyongyang tensions, praising the end of propaganda ping-pong. Others lament cutting North Koreans off from critical news and human-rights appeals. Tistory writers trace decades of psychological operations that once helped defectors escape, arguing that silence may become the loudest message yet. As VOA’s Korean service remains stalled and RFA teeters under budget cuts, the question echoes: has Seoul sealed the last window for North Korean ears?