For a year or so, the two countries engaged in daily standoffs—the North pumping out animal wails and the South blaring boy-band music and news.

North Korea appears to have stopped broadcasting loud noises towards the South, Seoul's military said Thursday, one day after South Korea halted its anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker campaign near the demilitarized zone.

South Korea has taken its first concrete step toward easing tensions with North Korea under its new president, Lee Jae-myung, by switching off loudspeakers that had been broadcasting K-pop music, news, and other propaganda across the border.