North Korea stops jamming radio signals from the South. Could talks be next?

North Korea has stopped jamming radio signals from the South, in what analysts see as a rare reciprocal gesture amid tentative steps towards lowering tensions on the divided Korean peninsula.

The move came days after Seoul halted government-run propaganda broadcasts aimed at the North, with a senior South Korean official describing Pyongyang’s response as unexpected but telling.

“We hadn’t anticipated that North Korea would stop its jamming signals, but it appears to be a reciprocal move in response to our suspension of broadcasts towards the North,” the official told reporters on Thursday.

“This shows that the North is closely and sensitively monitoring our actions,” the official added, noting that the step came despite Pyongyang’s formal designation of Seoul as a “hostile foreign state”.

Since the division of the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II in 1945, the communist North and the capitalist South have traditionally viewed each other as targets for reunification on their own terms.