Kim Yo-jong Threatens to Resume Loudspeaker Broadcasts Along Korean Border

Kim Yo-jong Threatens to Resume Loudspeaker Broadcasts Along Korean Border

North Korea is considering resuming loudspeaker broadcasts against South Korea and deploying additional tactical strike assets along the inter-Korean border, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Monday, amid renewed tensions over military activities near the border.

According to Asia News Network, Kim, director of the General Affairs Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, accused South Korean troops of repeatedly issuing warning broadcasts and firing warning shots at North Korean personnel working near the border since August.

“Our military leadership is considering increasing the deployment of tactical strike means near the entire southern border and resuming loudspeaker broadcasts against South Korea as preemptive and suppressive measures in preparation for any contingency,” Kim said in a statement carried by North Korean state media.

The youngest of Kim Jong Il’s three sons, Kim Jong-Un lived most of his life out of the public eye, and little was known about him. Reportedly educated in Gümligen, Switzerland, at the International School of Berne, he went on to study at Kim Il-Sung National War College in Pyongyang from 2002 to 2007. As a young adult, Kim Jong-Un began accompanying his father on military inspections. It was thought that he worked either for the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP; the country’s ruling party) or in the army’s General Political Bureau; both organizations were involved in surveillance of government officials.

Kim Jong Un and Ri Sol Ju stand side by side on a red carpet, posing for a photo in front of a blue and green abstract backdrop.
Kim Jong-Un and Ri Sol-JuKim Jong-Un with his wife, Ri Sol-Ju, 2018.
Rumours began to circulate early in 2009 that he was being groomed as his father’s eventual successor. He was listed as a candidate for the Supreme People’s Assembly in 2009, and that April he was given a post on the powerful National Defense Commission (NDC); the chairmanship of the NDC, defined in the constitution as the country’s highest office, was held by Kim Jong Il. By mid-2009 Kim Jong-Un was being referred to within the country by the title “

Brilliant Comrade,” and in June it was reported that he had been named head of the State Security Department, the government agency responsible for political control and counterintelligence. That year he also reportedly married Ri Sol-Ju. In September 2010 Kim Jong-Un was given the high rank of four-star general, although he was not known to have had any prior military experience. The timing of his appointment was considered significant, as it came shortly before the first general meeting of the KWP since the session in 1980 at which his father had been named Kim Il-Sung’s successor. Over the next year his own position as successor became clearer.
Kim claimed South Korean forces conducted 2,870 warning broadcasts and fired warning shots on 201 occasions between August 1 and October 17. She said the actions had intensified following what she described as Seoul’s “fabricated mine explosion incident,” apparently referring to two mine explosions on September 21 that injured three South Korean military personnel inside the Demilitarized Zone.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said its military continued to issue warnings when necessary but stressed that the broadcasts were not being made through the large-scale loudspeaker systems used for anti-North Korea propaganda, whose operation was suspended in June.

After the death of his father in December 2011, Kim Jong-Un was declared the country’s supreme leader, an unofficial title that nonetheless signaled his position as the head of both the government and North Korea’s military forces. In April 2012 his status was validated by the acquisition of several official titles: first secretary of the KWP, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and chairman of the NDC, which was then the country’s highest bureaucratic authority. Kim’s national strategy of byungjin (often translated as “parallel development”), which emphasized the development of the country’s economy along with its defense capabilities, was officially adopted during a 2013 meeting of the KWP central committee. In June 2016 the congress of the Supreme People’s Assembly revised the constitution to broaden and solidify Kim Jong-Un’s position. The revisions created a new organization, the State Affairs Commission, with Kim as its head. The new commission replaced the NDC as North Korea’s most powerful governing agency.

The early years of Kim’s reign were characterized by a ruthless consolidation of power and the sharp acceleration of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. In December 2013 Kim executed his uncle Jang Song-Thaek, saying that he had “removed the scum” from the KWP. Jang was a member of Kim Jong Il’s inner circle and had served as a virtual regent for the younger Kim after his father’s death. Jang’s execution also marked a break with Beijing, as Jang had long been an advocate of closer ties with China. Although Jang was the highest-profile official to be purged by Kim, defectors and South Korean intelligence services reported that people who had displeased the regime were being executed on a routine basis. In several cases, individuals who reportedly had been killed in a spectacularly grisly fashion resurfaced years later; such instances provided a clear illustration of just how difficult it was to obtain accurate information about events inside North Korea.

Under Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program had advanced in fits and starts. The country’s first underground nuclear detonation, in October 2006, came just months after a series of ballistic missile tests, but observers characterized these early forays as middling successes at best. After February 2013, which saw the first nuclear test of the Kim Jong-Un regime, the pace of both underground detonations and long-range missile tests quickened dramatically. By 2017 North Korea had conducted a total of six nuclear tests, including at least one of a device that North Korean officials claimed was small enough to mount on an intercontinental ballistic missile. With a significant part of the mainland United States now theoretically within range of a North Korean nuclear attack, a war of words erupted between Kim and U.S. Pres. Donald Trump.

Instead, the warnings were delivered through smaller speakers installed at South Korean guard posts for military operations toward North Korea, according to the ministry.

“We are continuing necessary warning broadcasts, but we cannot confirm specific operational details,” a ministry official said.

The warnings have been issued as North Korean troops have repeatedly approached or crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) in recent months. Under South Korea’s rules of engagement, troops issue verbal warnings when North Korean personnel approach the line and fire warning shots if they cross it.

Data from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff indicated that North Korean troops crossed the MDL about 50 times in August and September, including around 20 crossings in August and 30 in September. The incidents were concentrated largely along the eastern front, where North Korea has continued fortification work near the border.

South Korea suspended its anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts along the border on June 11 under President Lee Jae Myung’s order as part of efforts to reduce military tensions. North Korea subsequently stopped its own loudspeaker broadcasts directed at the South.

Kim warned that Seoul would face consequences for its military actions, saying it would “surely regret the useless bravado of its military thugs and face risks that will be difficult to handle.”

“We clearly emphasize once again that we do not defend our sovereignty with words,” she added.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea threatened Monday to resume propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and deploy more weapons along the border with South Korea, as the rivals remain locked in animosities over last month's mine blasts that injured three South Korean soldiers.

Earlier this month, South Korea formally blamed North Korea-planted mines for the Sept. 21 blasts at the border, urging the North to apologize and remove other mines. That announcement came after North Korea denied responsibility for the explosions and warned of strong retaliation if provoked.

On Monday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused South Korea of firing warning shots and making warning broadcasts numerous times at the border since August under "such an unreasonable pretext" that North Korean soldiers crossed the border. She said that such provocations "have gone beyond the red line" since the mine blasts.

"A grave situation is prevailing along the southern border due to the reckless behavior of the ROK military gangsters," Kim Yo Jong said, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

She said the North Korean military was considering "deploying more tactical strike means along the southern border as a preemptive and suppressive measure to deal with contingency, and of resuming the loudspeaker broadcasting against the ROK."

On Tuesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Jin Yong-Sung, called the North Korean threats "intolerable" and ordered the military to "sternly respond" to potential provocations by the North. Jin said South Korea's military will firmly deal with border breaches by North Korean troops, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In recent years, tensions along the Korean border, one of the world's most heavily fortified, have increased as North Korea added mines, barbed wire fences, anti-tank barriers and other front-line fortifications in line with its policy of terminating ties with South Korea.

South Korea's military earlier said North Korean soldiers violated the border's military demarcation line 50 times this year during their fortification works. South Korea's military said it responded by firing warning shots and making warning broadcasts. It didn't immediately respond to the latest North Korean warning.

In 2015, mine blasts blamed on North Korea that maimed two South Korean soldiers pushed the Koreas to the brink of an armed conflict, after South Korea resumed front-line loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts for the first time in 11 years.Loudspeaker broadcasts are one of the old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare campaigns the two Koreas have occasionally used against each other in times of confrontation.Since taking office last year, South Korea's liberal government, led by President Lee Jae Myung, halted such broadcasts as part of efforts to improve ties with North Korea. North Korea later stopped its own broadcasts.

North Korea has recently dialed up weapons testing activities in a likely bid to pressure the United States to make bigger concessions, after President Donald Trump renewed his efforts to restore diplomacy with Kim Jong Un.

North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said in a statement on state media KCNA on Monday that her country was considering deploying additional tactical weapons and restarting loudspeaker broadcasts near the border with South Korea.  

“Now the situation of the southern border is very unstable,” she said.

“The warmongers of the ROK military are seriously threatening the safety of our service personnel by firing warning shots at them with automatic rifles and large-calibre machine guns,” she said, referring to the official name for South Korea.

Tensions between North and South Korea have risen since Pyongyang began fortifying its border in April 2024. The two countries are separated by the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that was established when the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953. 

South Korea’s military said on October 5 that the North had deployed as many as 7,000 workers this year to install mines and fences, with about 50 incidents of crossing the border.

North Korean mines caused a border blast last month that seriously wounded two of its soldiers, the South said, and called on Pyongyang to suspend the fortification work.

“The South Korean military has been on high alert on North Korea’s fortification works, firing warning shots and conducting loudspeaker broadcasts,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. “And Pyongyang seems to be worrying that such warning activities by Seoul might escalate tensions near the border or cause a military conflict.” 

Kim Yo Jong said Seoul had carried out 2,870 rounds of loudspeaker warnings and fired 201 warning shots from August 1 to October 17.

Seoul has not disclosed data on its activities near the border to counter North Korea’s fortification works.“To cope with the prevailing situation, our military leadership is examining the issues of deploying more tactical strike means along the southern border as a pre-emptive and suppressive measure to deal with contingency, and of resuming loudspeaker broadcasting against the ROK, and considering other necessary and appropriate measures,” she said.

South Korea’s defence ministry was not immediately available to comment.(Reporting by Heejin Kim, Kyuseok Shim and Dahyun Lee; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

U.S. President Donald Trump, on the 19th, stated, “I don’t know” when asked about the possibility of meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, next month. Trump made the remark to reporters at the White House while en route to Kansas State on the afternoon of the same day, responding to a question about whether he could meet the North Korean leader next month. On the 12th, Trump had said, “It could happen” and “It would be very exciting” regarding the potential meeting.

Trump added, “I get along very well with Kim Jong Un,” and noted, “I’m not sure if anyone wants the meeting, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is very good.” This comment contrasts with his previous conciliatory messages urging unconditional U.S.-North Korea talks. Meanwhile, Trump expressed willingness to hold a three-way summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to end the Ukraine war, stating, “I will do everything I can” and that “nuclear weapons and denuclearization issues will be discussed.” The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expired without extension in February, leaving the U.S. and Russia without a nuclear arms control framework.

Regarding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s criticism of Trump’s suspension of sanctions on Russia and imports of Russian oil, calling him “on the wrong side of history,” Trump retorted, “Zelenskyy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” He added that if Zelenskyy had listened to his arguments, Ukraine could have reached a “peace agreement” long ago, and “it might be time for Zelenskyy to send someone else to negotiations,” revealing his frustration. On the 15th, Trump had mentioned the possibility of a regime change in Ukraine, stating, “He is not someone we want to deal with.”

On the student protests in France spreading across Europe, Trump remarked, “This is not a school issue but an immigration issue,” criticizing leaders for “letting in people who do not love their country, do not love buildings, and do not love art.” He recalled telling French President Emmanuel Macron during their first meeting, “You are making a big mistake for France,” “Paris will soon become a Muslim city,” and “If you don’t close the borders, you will ruin the country.” Trump concluded, “They have ruined the country. It will be hard to recover, but I hope France returns.”

Is Donald Trump hinting at something about Kim Jong-un, or is a wave of unverified rumours spiralling out of control? Claims that the North Korean leader has fallen into a coma, been secretly flown to Beijing or even died have fuelled a global mystery. Trump’s latest response on a possible meeting with Kim in China was strikingly uncertain: “I don’t know,” he told reporters, while insisting their relationship remained good. But there is no verified evidence linking his remarks to Kim’s alleged health crisis.

Posted on 2026/10/20 10:17 AM