North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts to return, Kim Yo Jong says

Key takeaways

• Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said on 21 October 2026 that loudspeakers aimed at South Korea "will be in operation along the whole border" before the end of October, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
• The announcement follows a 19 October statement in which she said the border situation was "very unstable" and that Pyongyang was considering resuming the broadcasts and deploying more tactical strike weapons.
• South Korea's top military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jin Yong-sung, called the threats "intolerable" and ordered troops to respond sternly to any provocation, the Associated Press reported.
• The move would reverse the 2025 de-escalation in which Seoul, under President Lee Jae Myung, switched off and then removed its own border loudspeakers.
• The two sides remain divided over a 21 September land mine blast that injured South Korean soldiers. Seoul blames mines planted by the North; Pyongyang denies involvement.

What Pyongyang announced

North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at the South will resume along the entire inter-Korean border before the end of October, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by KCNA on Wednesday, 21 October. She called the step the "most just measure".

Kim, who holds a department director post in the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, made the announcement after touring fortification sites on the southern border with Pak Jong Chon, a senior military figure described by KCNA as an adviser to the Ministry of National Defence. KCNA first dated the visit to Tuesday; Kim then issued a correction saying it took place early on Wednesday, according to Yonhap and SBS News.

According to Yonhap's account of the KCNA reports, Pak accused South Korea of making "deliberate, premeditated and absurd" claims that North Korean troops had crossed the border during the work, insisting that the North was acting inside its own territory. He urged soldiers to turn the border into an "impregnable fortress" and to take "prompt and decisive action" if their personnel were threatened. SBS News reported that Pak also said the North "must strike back immediately" if the South answered with provocations, and that Kim said new firepower sub-units had taken up firing positions.

The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Kim's statement warned that if the North responded with its own warning shots, the situation could escalate into "an unimaginably terrible phase", and that border guards would "show no mercy" if South Korean fire caused harm to North Korean territory or personnel.

The 19 October warning

Wednesday's announcement built on a statement Kim issued two days earlier. In it, as reported by the Korea JoongAng Daily, she accused the South Korean military of threatening North Korean personnel with warning broadcasts and warning shots, and claimed that from the start of October through 17 October the South had issued 998 loudspeaker warnings and fired 91 warning shots. These figures are Pyongyang's own and have not been independently confirmed. She also accused the Lee administration of pursuing a harder line than its conservative predecessor while presenting itself as seeking reconciliation.

How Seoul responded

The Associated Press reported that Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jin Yong-sung called Kim's threats "intolerable" and ordered the military to respond sternly to any provocation. South Korea's military says North Korean soldiers have crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) about 50 times this year while carrying out fortification work, and that it answered those crossings with warning broadcasts and warning shots, according to AP. Pyongyang calls those accounts a false pretext.

SBS News, citing an unnamed South Korean military official, reported that the South's surveillance assets observed the North Korean inspection party at a fortification site on the western front near the Joint Security Area. The same report said Gen. Jin had visited a frontline corps headquarters on 20 October to check readiness. As of publication, the sources reviewed for this article did not include a separate statement from South Korea's Unification Ministry or presidential office on the latest announcement.

The land mine dispute behind the tension

The current exchange traces back to a land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on 21 September. AP reported that the blasts injured three South Korean frontline soldiers. After an inspection carried out with the US-led United Nations Command, Seoul formally attributed the explosion to mines planted by the North and urged Pyongyang to apologise and clear its remaining mines. The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the UN Command concluded that the North's mine placement violated the 1953 Armistice Agreement.

Pyongyang rejects that finding. In a 30 September statement, Kim Yo Jong called Seoul's conclusion a "farce" and threatened "immediate and merciless" retaliation against any live-fire response, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. In her 19 October statement she described the blast as "self-staged".

A short history of the loudspeakers

Loudspeaker broadcasts across the border are a Cold War-era tactic that both Koreas have revived during periods of tension. The table below sets out the main steps since 2024, based on the reports cited.

The 2024 round began when Seoul, then led by President Yoon Suk Yeol, switched on its speakers after North Korea sent hundreds of balloons carrying rubbish across the border, NPR reported. North Korea answered with broadcasts of its own. After Lee took office in June 2025, his government stopped the South's broadcasts as part of an effort to rebuild trust, and the North's broadcasts went quiet soon afterwards, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In August 2025, Seoul removed its speakers, and its military said the North had begun taking down some of its own. Kim Yo Jong publicly denied that account and, according to Al Jazeera, called the South's claim an "unfounded unilateral supposition". South Korea's Unification Ministry did not respond directly at the time and said it would keep working toward the "normalisation" and "stabilisation" of relations.

What it means

If carried out, the restart would undo one of the most visible gestures of the 2025 thaw and confirm that Pyongyang has not accepted Seoul's outreach. Since late 2023, North Korea has described the two Koreas as hostile states, and Yonhap notes that it has been building barbed-wire fences, minefields and anti-tank barriers along the MDL since April 2024.

For Seoul, the challenge is to deter incursions and protect its troops without being drawn into an exchange of fire. Both sides now accuse the other of provocation: the South points to repeated border crossings and the mine blast, while the North points to warning shots and broadcasts. With each side setting out how it would respond to the other, the main near-term risk is a miscalculation at points where troops and construction crews operate close to the line.

Several questions remain open. It is not yet known when, or whether, the North's speakers will actually be switched on, what they will broadcast, or whether Seoul will resume its own broadcasts in response. The reports reviewed for this article do not indicate whether Seoul is considering reinstalling the speakers it removed in 2025.

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Sources

• Associated Press via CP24 — North Korea says it will restart border propaganda broadcasts as tensions rise with the South (21 October 2026)
• The Korea Times / Yonhap — N. Korea to resume propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward S. Korea: Kim Yo-jong (21 October 2026)
• Korea JoongAng Daily — North Korea to activate anti-South loudspeakers across border by end of October (21 October 2026)
• SBS News — Frontline inspection with "top military official": "Loudspeakers against South in October" (21 October 2026)
• Korea JoongAng Daily — Kim Yo-jong threatens to resume anti-South loudspeaker broadcasts amid border tensions (19 October 2026)
• Korea JoongAng Daily — Kim Yo-jong calls Seoul's DMZ mine blast findings a "farce" (30 September 2026)
• Al Jazeera — North Korean leader's sister says South Korea lying about thaw in ties (14 August 2025)
• blue News / Keystone-SDA — North Korea begins dismantling propaganda loudspeakers at border (9 August 2025)
• The Korea Times — N. Korea appears to halt broadcasts of loud noises toward S. Korea (12 June 2025)
• NPR — South Korea to restart loudspeaker broadcasts into North to combat trash balloons (9 June 2024)
• Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), English edition