North Korea has announced plans to place anti-South Korea loudspeakers on standby along its entire border within days, while putting unspecified new countermeasures on alert, as tensions between the two countries escalate.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued the warning on Thursday, threatening Seoul with “the most horrible and distressing situation” if it continued what Pyongyang described as interference in the North’s internal affairs.
The announcement followed Kim’s visit to border fortification sites with senior military officials on Wednesday evening, when she said North Korea would activate loudspeakers across the border by the end of October.
Kim also claimed North Korean tactical units had taken up new positions and accused South Korean troops of conducting warning broadcasts and firing warning shots at several locations near the frontier.
South Korea defended the warning shots as “legitimate and defensive measures”.
Kim warned that North Korean troops would “mercilessly eliminate” South Korean forces if the warning fire caused harm to North Korean territory or personnel.
The threats pose a fresh challenge to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s efforts to reduce hostility between the two Koreas. Tensions along the heavily fortified border have now reached their highest level since Lee took office in June last year.
Both countries have historically used loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda across the border. South Korean broadcasts have included K-pop music and news reports, which have long angered Pyongyang and prompted retaliatory broadcasts from the North.
The two countries remain separated by the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), established after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Since 2024, North Korea has been strengthening its side of the DMZ with mines, barriers and fencing as it seeks to establish what it describes as a permanent border with South Korea.
Seoul has accused Pyongyang of planting mines that caused an explosion in the DMZ last month, seriously injuring two South Korean soldiers. North Korea has denied responsibility, dismissing the allegation as a fabrication.
Since taking office, Lee has pursued diplomatic engagement and efforts to reduce tensions, despite Pyongyang refusing to resume dialogue and officially designating South Korea as a hostile state.
His administration halted South Korean loudspeaker broadcasts and dismantled fixed loudspeakers along the border last year as confidence-building measures. North Korea subsequently suspended its own broadcasts towards the South.
However, Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said Kim’s latest warnings did not necessarily mean the loudspeakers would be activated immediately.
He said the developments nevertheless presented Lee’s administration with an “enormous dilemma” as it attempts to maintain peaceful engagement while responding to North Korea’s increasingly aggressive military activities along the border.
