North Korea Prepares to Restart Propaganda Loudspeakers as Ties With South Deteriorate
Seven Lights
Propaganda loudspeakers aimed at South Korea will be ready to restart within days along the entire border, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA on Thursday, according to the Guardian. The statement came a day after she said the loudspeakers would be in operation along the whole border from some time in October, the Guardian reported. Sky News reported the planned broadcasts target South Korea along the heavily armed border.
If the broadcasts resume, they would be the first loudspeaker exchange across the border in 16 months, the Guardian reported: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung suspended broadcasts from the southern side just days into his presidency in June 2025 to ease tensions with Pyongyang, and South Korean forces dismantled the speakers that August. At a briefing in Seoul on Thursday, a defence ministry spokesperson said that if North Korea goes ahead, “naturally there would have to be a proportional measure,” but made clear no decision had been made, the Guardian said. South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said routine maintenance of the North’s loudspeakers had been observed before Kim Yo-jong’s statements, the Guardian reported, and Al Jazeera reported that Seoul is urging dialogue.
Both North and South Korea have historically used giant loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda across the border, according to the Guardian, with the North in recent years playing “haunting bestial howls” and the South opting for K-pop music and news criticising Pyongyang.
Tensions between the two Koreas have risen since September, when a landmine blast south of the military demarcation line injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously, the Guardian reported. Seoul and the UN command — which oversees the 1953 armistice that halted but did not end the Korean war — concluded it was a North Korean anti-personnel mine and an armistice violation, while Pyongyang denied responsibility and called the incident a “self-staged farce,” according to the Guardian.
The loudspeaker threat comes as North Korea continues to fortify its side of the border. Since Kim Jong-un declared that the two Koreas were “two states hostile to each other” in December 2023, North Korea has laid mines, strung barbed wire and erected anti-tank barriers along the border, the Guardian reported. Kim Yo-jong inspected several fortification points along the border on Wednesday with Pak Jong-chon, a marshal and adviser to Pyongyang’s defence ministry, according to the Guardian, which said she described the border as “clearly blocked and turned into a fortress more thoroughly,” and that Kim Jong-un had told her it “should be a permanent line never to be crossed.”
Seoul says North Korean troops have repeatedly crossed the military demarcation line, the 250km line dividing the two Koreas, during the construction work, prompting South Korean soldiers to issue warnings over loudspeakers and fire warning shots, according to the Guardian. North Korea has called the warning shots and broadcasts provocations by “armed rogues,” the Guardian reported.