Despite tensions, South Korea will relax its ban on North Korean media.

South Korea's SEOUL Despite hostilities over the North's most recent missile tests, South Korea intends to end its decades-long restriction on public access to North Korean television, newspapers, and other publications as part of its efforts to foster understanding between the foes.

The two Koreas, which have been divided since 1948 along the most tightly guarded border in the world, forbid its residents from travelling to one another's country, exchanging phone calls, emails, and letters, and they block access to one another's websites and television networks.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said it will gradually open the door for North Korean broadcasts, media, and publications to strive to improve mutual understanding, restore the Korean national character, and prepare for a future unification in a policy report to new President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday.

According to ministry representatives, South Korea would begin by enabling access to North Korean broadcasts in an effort to persuade that country to follow suit. The ministry declined to offer any information, stating that the plans are still being negotiated with the appropriate South Korean authorities.

North Korea is unlikely to reciprocate, according to Jeon Young-sun, a research professor at Seoul's Konkuk University, because the flow of South Korean cultural and media content would pose "a really enormous danger to" its totalitarian government.

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Since its founding in 1948, North Korea has been ruled by three generations of the Kim family. Despite this, several defectors have claimed they were able to view smuggled South Korean TV shows while within the North. When South Korean activists released balloons carrying USB sticks with information about the outside world and pamphlets critical of the Kim family toward North Korean territory in 2014, North Korean forces fired fire.

Because of North Korea's relentless string of missile tests this year, tensions between the two Koreas continue to be high. Yoon, a conservative, has stated that if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons, he will take a stronger position against its provocations. Yoon also stated that he has "an audacious strategy" to boost the North's economy.

Jeon said South Korea needs to loosen its ban on North Korean media because the restrictions have made it dependent on foreigners and other countries for North Korea-related information, despite the North's anticipated reluctance to reciprocate. Jeon claimed that this has raised the risk of finding misinformation about North Korea.

It was unclear how South Korean anti-North Korea activists would respond to the government's action. There was little prospect, according to Jeon, that the action would encourage pro-North Korean attitudes.

South Korea, which has the tenth-largest economy in the world, is a major cultural force. According to estimates from South Korea, its nominal gross domestic product in 2019 was 54 times greater than North Korea's.