SEOUL: South Korea said Friday it has restarted blasting propaganda broadcasts into North Korea to retaliate against the North’s latest round of trash-carrying balloon launches, a resumption of Cold War-style tactics that are raising animosities between the rivals.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it used front-line loudspeakers to blare anti-Pyongyang broadcasts over the border between Thursday evening and Friday morning. It said the South Korean military turned on loudspeakers again later Friday as it found out the North was preparing to fly more balloons.
The broadcasts were the first of their kind in about 40 days. The contents of the broadcasts were not immediately known, but previous ones last month reportedly included K-pop songs, weather forecasts and news on Samsung, the biggest South Korean company, as well as outside criticism of the North’s missile program and its crackdown on foreign video.
The South Korean broadcasts could trigger an angry response from North Korea because it is extremely sensitive to any outside attempt to undermine its political system. In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting the South to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.
South Korea’s military said North Korea must be blamed for heightened tensions because it ignored South Korea’s repeated warnings and continued its “despicable” balloon campaigns. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the South Korean military will conduct loudspeaker broadcasts in a fuller manner and other stronger steps if North Korea continues provocations like balloon launches.
South Korea’s military earlier said North Korea’s launch on Thursday afternoon was its eighth balloon campaign since late May. About 200 North Korean balloons were found on South Korean soil as of Friday morning, and they mostly carried waste papers, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Previous North Korean-flown balloons carried scraps of cloth, cigarette butts, waste batteries and even manure, though they caused no major damages in South Korea. North Korea said they were sent in response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets to the North via their own balloons.
South Korea responded by suspending a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea, conducting propaganda broadcasts for two hours on June 9 and front-line live-fire military drills at border areas.
Earlier this week, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hinted at flying rubbish-carrying balloons again or launching new countermeasures, saying South Korean balloons have been found again at border and other areas in North Korea. In her statement Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong warned that South Korean “scum” must be ready to pay “a gruesome and dear price.” That raised concerns that North Korea could stage physical provocations, rather than balloon launches.
South Korea’s military said Wednesday it has boosted its readiness to brace for any provocation by North Korea. It said North Korea may fire at incoming South Korean balloons across the border or floating mines downriver.
It wasn’t immediately known whether groups in South Korea have recently scattered leaflets in North Korea. For years, activist groups led by North Korean defectors have used helium-filled balloons to drop anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks containing K-pop music and South Korean dramas and US dollar bills in the North.
North Korea views such activities as a serious security threat and challenge to its ban on foreign news for most of its 26 million people. In 2020, North Korea destroyed an unoccupied South Korean-built liaison office on its territory in a furious response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2014, North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.
Tensions between the Koreas have heightened in recent years because of North Korea’s missile tests and the expansion of U.S-South Korean military drills that North Korea calls invasion rehearsals. Experts say North Korea’s expanding ties with Russia could embolden Kim Jong Un to stage bigger provocations, particularly ahead of the US presidential election in November.
North Korea’s state media said Friday that Kim met a visiting Russian delegation led by Vice Defense Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko. During the meeting, Kim stressed the need for the two countries’ armies to unite more firmly to defend international peace and justice, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
In June, Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang and signed a deal requiring each country to provide aid to the other if it is attacked and vowed to boost other cooperation. Analysts say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.
South Korea restarts blaring propaganda broadcasts after Pyongyang flies trash balloons anew
https://arab.news/8qnq6
South Korea restarts blaring propaganda broadcasts after Pyongyang flies trash balloons anew
- The South Korean broadcasts could trigger an angry response from North Korea
Old Delhi iftars revive Mughal heritage, one course at a time
- Dastarkhwan-e-Jahaanuma iftars have been held in Old Delhi since 2017
- Muslim and non-Muslim participants arrive from across India and abroad
NEW DELHI: On a rooftop in Delhi’s historic walled city, guests from across India sit on cushions around a low table overlooking Jama Masjid, waiting for its sunset call to prayer — the signal to start a special iftar that will take them back four centuries, to the Mughal era, if only for a while.
Mughals ruled the Indian subcontinent between the 16th and 19th centuries. Originally from Central Asia, they carried traditions borrowed from Arabs, Persians and Ottomans, which they merged with the various local Indian styles — a fusion that marked the global revival of Islamic architecture and culture.
Jama Masjid is one of the most iconic examples of the Mughal style — a scenic background to the curated iftars that bring 40 to 50 people from across India to share a meal, knowledge and experience.
“People getting together from different walks of life, different parts of the country, different religions, different cultures coming together — it was absolutely and completely amazing,” said Arvind Sirohi, who took part in the event with his wife.
“Lovely storytelling, amazing food, and end of the day, right next to Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. The ambience, the environment, the atmosphere came together so beautifully.”
The community-led iftar experience is called Dastarkhwan-e-Jahaanuma — from Urdu words meaning a “spread of food” and “showing the world.”
For Veena Sirohi, it did exactly what the name promised by bringing together people from different communities, different parts of India, and abroad.
“I think that’s a great way of synthesizing different cultures, bringing people together, bringing the human aspect of what we all are ... we are actually all one,” she told Arab News.
“And we had some wonderful comperes who told us about … the history of Ramadan, what goes behind it, how the food is curated, and how each and every item has a specific place in the menu.”
Served in gilded bowls and plates from traditional Indian crockery, with rose petals dotting the dastarkhwan cloth, the dishes were some of the festive Ramadan delicacies, offering a taste of Mughal culinary heritage.
Among them was mutanjan, or fragrant rice cooked with ghee, sugar, saffron, cardamom, and studded with nuts, which for many Indian Muslims is traditionally the first dish to break the fast.
It was followed by shabde, a rich, slow-cooked aromatic meat stew or the Delhi biryani — a fragrant, mildly spiced saffron rice and meat dish, where marinated chicken or mutton is layered with basmati rice and cooked slowly.
The hearty feast closed with nihari, a hearty stew simmered overnight with spices and bone marrow, which emerged in the 18th century and was originally eaten by Mughal royals for breakfast.
“These are the traditional dishes which are not usually available in the market, but are specially prepared by the bawarchees (cooks) of Old Delhi. Some of the dishes are occasional dishes,” said Abu Sufiyan Khan, the founder of Tales of City, the cultural experience company that has been curating Dastarkhwan-e-Jahaanuma since 2017.
The special iftars are hosted once a week throughout the fasting month, usually on weekends. There are variations in dishes served as they come from different kitchens, as Tales of City collaborates with various local artisans and cooks.
“We are curating this with different experts and every time the menu changes,” Khan said.
“We bring all these dishes onto a single dastarkhwan, and we share this meal with the people coming from all over India to break bread together in the holy month of Ramadan, know each other, learn about each other’s culture, and create a dialogue space where we can have more meaningful conversations and an opportunity to get to know each other.”
Those who take part, like Ayandrali Dutta, a food critic, appreciate everything about the experience, especially as it takes place in Old Delhi, where the vibe is always “jovial, lively, in all positive ways” during Ramadan.
“You get to meet interesting people, you get to hear interesting stories ... It’s a great initiative to show what Ramadan is, what kind of food is eaten, talk about the cultures between Lucknow and Delhi and other parts of the country. And it just brings a lot of happiness,” she said.
“I loved it. My heart is happy, my belly is full. Nothing else I can ask for.”
