M. TOMOSKI

At the Joint Security Area (JSA) of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, guards are always posted. Two stand on the southern side facing north, as you might expect, against potential threats. On the opposite end, as a testament to the bizarre mystery of the hermit kingdom, a lone guard stands to the north against defectors while another two face each other on the off chance that one of them decides to make a run for it.

In the past week, North and South Korea once again came close to full-scale war. This is a familiar dance the rival countries have been engaged in since the early ’50s. It is a balancing act of taunts, threats of violence, and occasional skirmishes, but this time the dance was set to real music.

In the past week, North and South Korea once again came close to full-scale war.

Spanning 250km along the 38th parallel, the DMZ is the most heavily-armed border in the world. It has long been the sight of flare-ups between the two countries that are technically still at war. Acting as a total dead zone, the DMZ is littered with more than a million landmines and has kept the countries apart for 65 years. The Korean War, having ended in 1953 with a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty, left both North and South with the constant reminder that hostilities might one day be reignited.

Despite the serious threat of a violent conflict, this decades-long rivalry has walked a fine line between tragedy and comedy. Most confrontations since the ceasefire have been a series of attempts to outdo each other and justify their respective regimes in a number of strange ways.

The most recent round of threats from the North were in response to something that James Franco and Seth Rogen can only wish they were high enough to write. Setting up 11 enormous speakers along the border, the South Korean military blasted its rivals with K-pop, a popular form of music in the South for which the North has its own conservative alternative.

The tactic of using music as a weapon is nothing new. In 1989, the US played several rock hits at a deafening level in order to force drug kingpin Manuel Noriega out of his hiding place in the Vatican embassy in Panama. Since then, the CIA has routinely tortured Guantanamo prisoners with everything from The Bee Gees to Barney the Dinosaur.

Reaching far beyond the border, the song called “Hit Your Heart” by the group 4minute was chosen for its lyrics “baby, you’re kidding me? I do what I want and I do it my way.”

In this case, the music was used to undermine Kim Jong-un’s repressive regime. Reaching far beyond the border, the song called “Hit Your Heart” by the group 4minute was chosen for its lyrics “baby, you’re kidding me? I do what I want and I do it my way.” Harmless as this may seem, the notion of doing what you want and doing it your way is a far cry from what Pyongyang would advertise to its citizens. The song was also paired with a broadcast of atrocities committed by the North Korean government and messages encouraging those who would like to be reunited with their families to come to the south.

Calling the tactic “psychological warfare”, North Korea threatened war if the speakers were not turned off by the end of the week.

Calling the tactic “psychological warfare”, North Korea threatened war if the speakers were not turned off by the end of the week. The end result was an exchange of artillery fire that ended when the leaders of the two sides agreed to hold a meeting on September 4th to discuss the reunion of families separated by the conflict. But this may not be the last time that K-pop will blast over the DMZ, and it was not the first time the speakers were used.

After the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan by a North Korean submarine in 2010, Seoul decided to use the speakers for the first time since 2004.

Given that 46 South Korean sailors had lost their lives in the attack, the Southern response was rather reserved. But the North took this type of provocation as a serious threat to its stability, and promised to turn Seoul into a “sea of flame” if the music was not shut off.

In the past, Pyongyang has tried to broadcast its own messages southward, but the superior technology of the south provided a much clearer sound. For the time being, the DMZ is once again silent, and the guards of the JSA can return to their bizarre routine.

Sources: wordpress.com,  businessinsider.com,  amazonaws.com,  npr.org