FILE – A soldier stands at a North Korean military guard post next to loudspeakers, seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, February 26, 2026.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
hide caption
Ahn Young-joon/AP
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea plans to resume its anti-Seoul propaganda broadcasts along the heavily armed border with South Korea, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un said, reigniting a campaign of psychological warfare as tensions rise after a land mine explosion injured three front-line South Korean soldiers.
Kim Yo Jong, her brother’s top spokesperson for Washington and Seoul, made the announcement Wednesday after visiting front-line areas where North Korean troops are reinforcing the border. She renewed her threat of retaliation against any South Korean provocation targeting the fortification works.
In a subsequent statement Thursday, she said the North would put “new means of combat” on alert along the border and put its loudspeakers on “standby” within days.
North Korea has added mines, barbed wire, anti-tank barriers and other fortifications to what is already one of the world’s most heavily armed borders as Kim Jong Un imposes a hard line toward Seoul.
Touring the region with Marshal Pak Jong Chon, one of his brother’s top military officials, Kim Yo Jong called the fortification work a “great and sacred undertaking” supporting the leader’s policy of permanently severing ties with South Korea, which he declared his most hostile adversary amid a broader diplomatic standoff with Washington.
In this photo provided Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, by the North Korean government, Kim Yo Jong, center left, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, tours frontline areas, with military officials, in North Korea on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. Independent journalists were not granted access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified.
KCNA via KNS/via AP
hide caption
KCNA via KNS/via AP
“Our tactical fighter teams are taking up new positions, and by October, the psychological warfare loudspeakers against the Republic of Korea will be operational all along the border,” Kim Yo Jong said, using the initials of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
She warned that if the South Korean warning shots – which Seoul says are aimed at forcing North Korean soldiers carrying out fortification work across the border – caused “real harm to our territorial security and the safety of our military,” North Korean border guards “would show no mercy to the mindless armed gangsters.”
Asked about Kim Yo Jong’s threat to resume loudspeaker broadcasts, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Chung Binna said Thursday that Seoul should take “proportionate measures” in response to the North’s movements along the border, but did not specify what measures are being considered.
North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency first reported that Kim’s visit to the border took place on Tuesday, but Kim later corrected that information in a separate statement.
Following an inspection by the U.S.-led UN command, Seoul officially blamed the Sept. 21 border explosions on mines planted by North Korea and urged the North to apologize and clear the remaining mines. North Korea has denied responsibility for the explosions and warned of strong retaliation if provoked.
“Our military leaders stressed the need to make these thieves aware that our new firepower units have taken their firing positions,” Kim told soldiers during his visit Wednesday, reminding them of his brother’s order to make the border with the enemy “eternally impregnable.”
South Korea’s military said North Korean soldiers had crossed the border’s military demarcation line 50 times this year during fortification work, and it responded with warning shots and broadcasts. Kim said South Korean claims about border crossings were a “false pretext” and that its provocations had increased “beyond the red line” since the mine explosion.
South Korea’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Jin Yong-Sung, called Kim’s threats “intolerable” and ordered the military to “respond severely” to possible provocations from the North.
During Tuesday’s border inspection, Pak accused the South of making “deliberate, premeditated and absurd” allegations to shift blame for rising tensions and threatened a “crushing response” to South Korean provocations. He also denied that North Korean soldiers crossed the border during fortification work, saying “our army knows better than any other where our border is,” KCNA said.
The loudspeaker broadcasts are among Cold War-era psychological warfare tactics that the two Koreas sometimes used against each other in times of tension.
South Korea’s liberal government, led by President Lee Jae Myung, cut its broadcasts after coming to power last year to improve relations with the North, which then cut its broadcasts.
In recent years, Kim Jong Un has cut off all diplomacy and cooperation with South Korea and declared it a permanent enemy as nuclear negotiations with Washington have dragged on for years at an impasse.
Gn headline
