South Korean soldiers stand guard in the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on March 03, 2023 in Panmunjom, South Korea. The United States will continue to counter threats posed by North Korea through close cooperation with its allies, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Thursday. (Photo by Jeon Heon-Kyun - Pool/Getty Images) 
The loudspeaker broadcasts and the balloons, which have been launched also by South Korean activists over the years sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets, have been new sources of tension between the two Koreas.
Since May, North Korea has been floating thousands of balloons with bags of trash attached to them, carried by wind to the South and dropping in civilian neighbourhoods, causing some property damage.
Seoul's military said it had decided to restart round-the-clock broadcasts after the North flew such balloons again on Thursday, when both Koreas were scrambling to contain damage from monsoon rains.
"These actions clearly violates the armistice agreement and are shameful and vulgar behaviour that could pose risks to the daily lives of our people," the military said in a statement.
"We strongly urge them to immediately stop the despicable, shameful and vulgar act," it added, vowing to take even stronger measures if the North continues sending trash balloons.
South Korea last month resumed the broadcasts using large loudspeakers set up at the border for the first time in six yearsafter repeated warnings for the North to stop sending trash, but the broadcasts only lasted for some hours.
Blaring propaganda, world news and K-pop music, the broadcasts, considered by military officials and activists as an effective form of psychological warfare, were stopped under a peace agreement signed in 2018, which both sides have declared as void as tensions rose.
(Reporting by Jack Kim and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Stephen Coates and Raju Gopalakrishnan)