Kim Yo-jong says North Korea will restart border loudspeakers by end of October
North Korea has set an end-of-month deadline for propaganda broadcasts toward South Korea, escalating pressure along a border already strained by mine explosions and military fortification.
Kim Yo-jong said on Wednesday, October 21, that North Korea would resume propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward South Korea along the entire inter-Korean border by the end of October. The announcement sets a deadline for a measure Pyongyang had previously raised as tensions grew along the heavily fortified frontier.
Yonhap News Agency reported that Kim’s statement was carried by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency. Kim called the broadcasts an appropriate response to what she described as South Korean threats. The Korea Herald reported that Seoul had been seeking to ease tensions through conciliatory gestures.
What changed in North Korea’s loudspeaker plan
Kim had previously raised the possibility of renewed broadcasts. The new statement says the loudspeakers will be operating across the whole border within October. That moves beyond the possibility described in earlier NewsJaws coverage of Kim’s border broadcast threat; neither report says the broadcasts have begun.
Kim said she inspected key border positions earlier on Wednesday with Pak Jong-chon while reviewing fortification work, according to Yonhap. The agency reported that an earlier North Korean state media account had placed the visit on Tuesday, a date Kim subsequently corrected. Pak called for the border to become an impregnable fortress and warned of action if North Korean personnel were threatened, Yonhap reported.
Warning-shot allegation and border tensions
The Korea Herald reported that Kim accused South Korean forces of making loudspeaker warnings and firing warning shots at two locations on Wednesday. She warned that further gunfire could sharply escalate tensions. South Korea had not responded to that allegation at the time of the report.
North Korea began reinforcing fences, planting mines and building anti-tank barriers along the border in April 2024, Yonhap reported. The work followed Kim Jong-un’s declaration the previous year that the two Koreas were hostile states. The fortification campaign forms the setting for the latest dispute over activity near the military boundary.
The border was already under strain after land mine explosions in the Demilitarized Zone in September injured three South Korean soldiers. South Korea attributed those blasts to North Korean mines; Pyongyang denied involvement. Kim referred to that incident this week as a fabricated claim, according to The Korea Herald.
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Sources and context
- Kim Yo-jong vows to resume loudspeaker broadcasts this monthThe Korea Herald
- (2nd LD) N. Korea to resume propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward S. Korea: N.K. leader's sisterYonhap News Agency
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.