Key Takeaways
- North Korea's Kim Yo Jong warns of impending loudspeaker activations along the border.
- South Korea urges dialogue to resolve differences, while preparing proportionate responses.
- The move heightens tensions along the heavily fortified frontier between the two Koreas.
North Korea has announced that anti-South Korea loudspeakers will be placed on standby along the entire border within days, according to Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader. This development comes with a warning to Seoul of the 'most horrible and distressing situation' if South Korea continues what Pyongyang calls interference in its internal affairs.
On Wednesday evening, Kim Yo Jong visited fortification sites with senior military officials and stated that North Korea would activate anti-South Korea loudspeakers across the border by the end of October. She accused South Korean troops of conducting warning broadcasts and warning shots at multiple locations near the border, to which South Korea responded that such actions were 'legitimate and defensive measures.'
South Korea's military and Unification Ministry have urged North Korea to return to talks to resolve differences. The military stated that Kim’s statements showed that measures taken with the UN Command to strengthen control in the demilitarized zone were having an effect. However, the defence ministry also noted that Seoul would take 'proportionate measures' if North Korea acted on its threats, although no decision had been made.
The loudspeaker threat adds pressure on Seoul, dealing a blow to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s efforts to ease inter-Korean hostility. This move raises tensions along the heavily fortified frontier to their highest level since he took office in June last year. Both North and South Korea have historically used loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda across the border, with South Korean broadcasts featuring K-pop music and news that have long irked Pyongyang and prompted tit-for-tat responses.
Since taking office, Lee has pursued a policy of diplomatic engagement and tension reduction with North Korea, despite Pyongyang’s refusal to resume dialogue and its designation of South Korea as a hostile state. His administration halted South Korean loudspeaker broadcasts and dismantled fixed border loudspeakers last year, steps Seoul described as key confidence-building measures, and after which North Korea suspended its own broadcasts toward the South.
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Seoul’s Kyungnam University, said Kim’s latest warnings did not necessarily mean the loudspeakers would be immediately activated. However, they presented Lee’s administration with an 'enormous dilemma.'
