What Kim Yo-jong announced

The announcement came in a statement carried by KCNA on Thursday. Kim Yo-jong said the loudspeakers aimed at the South would be ready to restart within days along the entire border. The timeline shortened an earlier pledge she made a day before, that the broadcasts would operate along the whole border from some time in October.

A broadcast war of howls and K-pop

The two sides have long used the border speakers differently. In recent years the North played haunting bestial howls, while the South opted for K-pop music and news critical of Pyongyang. If the restart goes ahead, it would be the first loudspeaker exchange across the border in 16 months.

• •South Korean president Lee Jae Myung suspended the southern broadcasts just days into his presidency in June 2025
• •The military dismantled the southern speakers that August

Seoul weighs its response

South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said routine maintenance of the North's loudspeakers had been observed before Kim Yo-jong's statements. A Seoul defence ministry spokesperson said that if the North proceeded, "naturally there would have to be a proportional measure", while noting that no decision had been made.

Border tensions behind the move

Inter-Korean tensions rose after a landmine blast south of the military demarcation line in September injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. Seoul and the UN command, which oversees the 1953 armistice that halted but did not end the Korean war, concluded the blast was caused by a North Korean anti-personnel mine and constituted an armistice violation. Pyongyang denied this and called the incident a "self-staged farce".

Since Kim Jong-un declared the two Koreas "two states hostile to each other" in December 2023, the North has laid mines, strung barbed wire and erected anti-tank barriers along its side of the border. On Wednesday Kim Yo-jong inspected several fortification points along the border with Pak Jong-chon, a marshal and adviser to Pyongyang's defence ministry, and said the border was "clearly blocked and turned into a fortress more thoroughly", adding that Kim Jong-un said it should be a permanent line never to be crossed.

Seoul says North Korean troops repeatedly crossed the 250km military demarcation line during the construction work, prompting warning broadcasts and warning shots from the South. North Korea called those measures provocations by "armed rogues".

As the North's speakers stand ready to restart within days, no decision on a proportional response has been made by Seoul.