Kim Yo Jong Mulls Border Loudspeaker Broadcasts — SkimNews
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- Kim Yo Jong said North Korea is considering deploying additional tactical weapons and restarting loudspeaker broadcasts along the southern border, accusing the ROK military of threatening Pyongyang's troops with automatic rifle and large-calibre machine gun warning shots.
- Tensions along the DMZ have escalated since Pyongyang began fortifying its border in April 2024; South Korea's military reported October 5 that the North deployed up to 7,000 workers this year to install mines and fences, with about 50 border-crossing incidents.
- A North Korean mine blast last month seriously wounded two of its own soldiers, the South's military said, prompting Seoul to call on Pyongyang to halt fortification work — which Seoul countered with loudspeaker broadcasts and warning shots.
- South Korea fired 2,870 rounds of loudspeaker warnings and 201 warning shots between August 1 and October 17, per the KCNA statement, though Seoul has not publicly disclosed its own border counter-activity data.
- Kyungnam University professor Lim Eul-chul said Pyongyang appears worried that Seoul's warning activities risk escalating tensions or triggering military conflict, framing the North's posture as a reactive countermeasure.
Why it matters: Deploying tactical weapons and restarting loudspeaker broadcasts would escalate a border confrontation that has already produced 50 crossing incidents, a North Korean mine blast that wounded two of its own soldiers, and 2,870 rounds of South Korean loudspeaker warnings since August 1.
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