North Korea Readies Loudspeakers Along Militarized Border

North Korea said Thursday it would put anti-South Korea loudspeakers on standby along the entire border within days and alert unspecified new countermeasures. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, warned Seoul of “the most horrible and distressing situation” if it continued what Pyongyang calls interference in North Korea’s internal affairs. The state apparatus is preparing another round of directed broadcasts as military tensions build along the border.

In a statement carried by state media KCNA, Kim said she was responding to a special adviser to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on defence policy. The adviser accused North Korea of planting mines that wounded South Korean soldiers and urged it not to escalate tensions with loudspeaker broadcasts. Kim said: “Our new counter means will get into the alert for duty at all the southern border line and the loudspeakers against the ROK will be on standby in a matter of days.” She added that North Korea would continue fortifying its southern border.

Threats at the Border

Kim issued another statement Wednesday evening, October 21, after visiting fortification sites with senior military officials. She said North Korea would activate anti-South Korea loudspeakers across the border by the end of October. She also said North Korean tactical units had taken up new positions and accused South Korean troops of conducting warning broadcasts and firing warning shots at multiple locations near the border.

South Korea called the warning shots “legitimate and defensive measures.” Kim warned North Korean troops would “mercilessly eliminate” South Korean forces if warning fire caused harm to North Korean territory or personnel. The statements place military units and soldiers on both sides at the center of a contest directed by state officials.

South Korea says North Korean mines planted during fortification activity in the Demilitarized Zone caused a blast last month that seriously wounded two soldiers. North Korea denies responsibility and calls the incident a South Korean fabrication. The soldiers’ injuries are established in the account; the two governments dispute responsibility for the mines.

Diplomacy Meets the Military Apparatus

The developments threaten to reverse South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s efforts to ease inter-Korean hostility and raise tensions along the heavily fortified frontier to their highest level since he took office. Lee has pursued diplomatic engagement and tension reduction despite Pyongyang’s refusal to resume dialogue and its designation of South Korea as a hostile state.

Lee’s administration halted South Korean loudspeaker broadcasts and dismantled fixed border loudspeakers last year as confidence-building measures. North Korea later suspended its own broadcasts toward the South. Now Pyongyang says it will prepare its loudspeakers again, while the South Korean administration weighs peaceful engagement against containing North Korean military activity along the border. The account covers presidents, military units and state officials; it reports no grassroots or community-led response.

Both Koreas have historically used loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda across the border. South Korean broadcasts have included K-pop music and news that have long angered Pyongyang and prompted tit-for-tat responses. The two Koreas are separated by the Demilitarized Zone, established after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice. North Korea has reinforced its side of the zone with mines, barriers and fencing since 2024 as it seeks to establish what it calls a permanent border with South Korea.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Seoul’s Kyungnam University, said Kim’s warnings didn’t necessarily mean the loudspeakers would be activated immediately. He said they presented Lee’s administration with an “enormous dilemma” as it weighs peaceful engagement against containing North Korean military activity along the border. For people living with the consequences, the facts are immediate: louder threats, military deployments, mines and two soldiers already seriously wounded.