Kim Yo-jong Says North Korea Will Restart Border Loudspeakers

North Korea says propaganda loudspeakers aimed at South Korea will be ready to resume broadcasting along the entire border within days, according to a statement from Kim Yo-jong, sister of leader Kim Jong-un, carried by state news agency KCNA on Thursday, the Guardian reports. The statement follows one a day earlier in which she said the equipment would be operational along the whole border sometime in October.

What exactly did Kim Yo-jong say?

Kim Yo-jong's statements, as relayed by KCNA, set no firm restart date but say the loudspeaker network will be "ready" within days. South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said they had already observed routine maintenance on North Korea's loudspeaker equipment before her remarks, an indicator the hardware is being prepared for use rather than newly installed.

How do the loudspeaker broadcasts function?

Both Koreas have for decades used fixed and mobile speaker arrays along the roughly 250-kilometer demilitarized zone to transmit programming audible across the border. North Korea has in recent years broadcast what the Guardian describes as bestial-sounding howls; South Korea's broadcasts have included K-pop music and news content critical of the Pyongyang government. If North Korea restarts, it would mark the first loudspeaker exchange across the border in 16 months.

Why did South Korea shut its own speakers down?

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung suspended his country's broadcasts in June 2025, within days of taking office, as a step to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean military followed by physically dismantling the speakers that August. The removal left North Korea as the only side with functioning equipment on the line in the period since.

What has Seoul said it will do if the North proceeds?

A South Korean defense ministry spokesperson told reporters at a Thursday briefing that "naturally there would have to be a proportional measure" if North Korea resumes broadcasting, while stressing that no decision has been made. That formulation leaves open whether Seoul would reinstall speakers, pursue another response, or wait to see whether Pyongyang follows through.

What triggered the latest deterioration in ties?

The Guardian ties the renewed friction to a landmine blast south of the military demarcation line in September that injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. South Korean authorities and the UN Command, which oversees the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War, have been examining that incident as tensions between the two governments have risen in the weeks since.

What to watch

The near-term marker is whether North Korea's loudspeakers actually go live along the full border as Kim Yo-jong described, rather than at isolated points. The second marker is Seoul's response: whether the defense ministry's "proportional measure" language translates into reinstalled speakers, a diplomatic protest, or no visible action. Any South Korean broadcast restart would reverse the policy Lee Jae Myung set in June 2025 and dismantled that August, making it a concrete test of how far his government is willing to go to match Pyongyang's move.