Bangladesh, Aug. 9 -- In a rare sign of de-escalation along one of the worlds most heavily militarized borders, South Koreas military confirmed on August 9 that it had detected North Korean workers dismantling some of the loudspeakers that for months had blared propaganda and bizarre sound effects across the inter-Korean frontier. The move comes just days after Seoul took down its own border loudspeakers in what the government of new President Lee Jae Myung has called a “confidence-building gesture” toward Pyongyang.

The dismantling of these devices marks a notable pause in the decades-old psychological warfare campaigns that have periodically flared along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). However, the gesture is fragile and coul...