By Yoo Dong-ho
Staff Reporter

South and North Korea started dismantling on Wednesday a symbol of five-decade-long hostility _ mammoth propaganda loudspeakers and signboards set up along the heavily fortified border, according to the Defense Ministry.

`` We embarked on tearing down the loudspeakers along the 248-kilometer-long military demarcation line (MDL), starting at Mt. Odu Unification Observatory in the western front near the Imjin River,’’ said a ROK Joint Chief of Staff official.

The North also began separate operations to remove its own propaganda installations and signboards along the land border on the other side of the peninsula, according to the military authorities.

The move comes after South and North Korea agreed last weekend to dismantle all signboards and other propaganda materials along the frontline by Aug. 15.

South Korea has around 100 propaganda billboards along the land border, while North Korea has 200. They show oversized slogans and drawings enticing opposing soldiers to defect.

A day earlier, the Koreas ended their propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts on the border, with a call for inter-Korean collaboration.

When the broadcasts started in the late 1950s, one of the main goals of both sides was to tempt soldiers to defect across the Demilitarized Zone, a Cold War vestige strewn with mine fields, barbed wire and tank traps.

While North Korean broadcasts stressed ideology, South Korea focused on nonpolitical themes such as pop music and weather forecasts.

The military breakthrough on the world’s last cold frontier testifies to a spreading thaw since the 2000 summit of their leaders, which touched off reconciliation on the Korean peninsula. Despite wide-ranging economic and other exchanges, military tension has persisted.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, with no peace treaty signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas will have two more working-level military meetings this month to follow up on the previously arranged peace agreements.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr