North Korea prepares to restart propaganda loudspeakers as ties sour with South

Propaganda loudspeakers aimed at South Korea will be ready to restart within days along the entire border, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has said amid a worsening of ties between the two countries.

The statement, carried by the state news agency KCNA on Thursday, came a day after she said the loudspeakers would be in operation along the whole border from some time in October.

Both North and South Korea have historically used giant loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda across the border, with the North in recent years playing haunting bestial howls, and the South opting for K-pop music ​and news criticising Pyongyang.

If the broadcasts resume, they would be the first loudspeaker exchange across the border in 16 months. 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 the military dismantled the speakers that August.

At a briefing on Thursday, a defence ministry spokesperson in Seoul said that if North Korea went ahead, “naturally there would have to be a proportional measure”, but made clear no decision had been made.

The joint chiefs of staff said routine maintenance of the North’s loudspeakers had been observed before Kim Yo-jong’s statements.

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.

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. Pyongyang denied responsibility and called the incident a “self-staged farce”.

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.

On Wednesday, Kim Yo-jong inspected several fortification points along the border with Pak Jong-chon, a marshal and adviser to Pyongyang’s defence ministry.

The border had been “clearly blocked and turned into a fortress more thoroughly”, she said, adding 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.

North Korea has called the warning shots and broadcasts provocations by “armed rogues”.