Kim Yo Jong: North Korea Mulls Loudspeaker Broadcasts at Border — SkimNews
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- Kim Yo Jong said in an Oct 19 KCNA statement that North Korea is considering deploying additional tactical weapons and restarting loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, declaring the "situation of the southern border is very unstable."
- Kim Yo Jong accused South Korea's military of threatening North Korean troops with automatic rifles and large-calibre machine guns, claiming Seoul conducted 2,870 rounds of loudspeaker warnings and 201 warning shots between Aug 1 and Oct 17.
- North Korea has deployed up to 7,000 workers to install mines and fences along the Demilitarized Zone, producing about 50 border-crossing incidents according to South Korea's military (Oct 5), with the fortification work beginning in April 2024.
- North Korean mines caused a border blast in September that seriously wounded two of its own soldiers, prompting South Korea to demand Pyongyang suspend the fortification work.
- Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said Pyongyang fears Seoul's warning activities "might escalate tensions near the border or cause a military conflict."
Why it matters: A resumption of cross-border loudspeaker propaganda would mark a sharp escalation from the current standoff over Pyongyang's DMZ fortification, directly countering the 2,870 warning broadcasts Seoul has already run since August. The signal from Kim Yo Jong — Pyongyang's most prominent spokesperson — that tactical strike assets are also being considered raises the military stakes at the most heavily fortified border on the peninsula.
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