South Korea to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts against Pyongyang

A South Korean police officer stands guard on an empty road connecting the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) inside the North Korean border with the South's CIQ (Customs, Immigration and Quarantine), just south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul May 3, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts towards North Korea at the inter-Korean border from Friday in response to North Korea's fourth nuclear test, South Korea's presidential office said on Thursday. The North's nuclear test was a "grave violation" of an August agreement reached between the two Koreas to ease tension and improve ties, a senior presidential national security official, Cho Tae-yong, said in a statement. "Our military is at a state of full readiness, and if North Korea wages provocation, there will be firm punishment," Cho said. North and South Korea traded artillery fire in August after Pyongyang demanded a halt to the loudspeaker broadcasts. The rivals negotiated an end to the standoff with an agreement to improve ties. (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)