North Korea installing loudspeakers on border – Seoul

The move is believed to be a tit-for-tat response by Pyongyang to propaganda broadcasts from the South

South Korea’s military said on Monday that Pyongyang appears to be setting up loudspeakers along the border in preparation for a tit-for-tat response to broadcasts by Seoul, the Associated Press (AP) news agency has reported. On Sunday, the South played a two-hour long anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcast into the North for the first time in six years.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) didn’t elaborate on the number of suspected North Korean speakers or where exactly along the border they were being installed, AP noted.

“We have identified signs of North Korea setting up loudspeakers in the border areas. So far, no broadcast has played out from the loudspeakers yet, and we are closely monitoring further developments and military readiness,” the JCS said, as quoted by the Asia News Network.

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Shots fired on Korean border

Seoul also said that some North Korean soldiers who were engaged in unspecified work on the northern side of the border had crossed the military demarcation line between the two countries. The South Korean military fired warning shots, and the North’s soldiers immediately returned to their territory, according to AP. Most of the North Korean soldiers were reportedly carrying pickaxes and other construction tools.

South Korea’s broadcast into the North on Sunday reportedly included news, criticism of the government in Pyongyang, and South Korean pop music. It was the first such broadcast since 2018 when South Korea withdrew loudspeakers from the border during a brief period of engagement with the North under Seoul’s previous government.

The latest escalation follows a balloon campaign by both nations. North Korea has launched hundreds of balloons carrying trash and manure into the South since May, in response to South Korean activists floating their own balloons to scatter propaganda leaflets in the North. Pyongyang has since pledged to stop airlifting trash into the South.

READ MORE: North Korea to suspend trash balloon campaign (VIDEO)

Earlier this month, South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) decided to suspend the 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact “until trust is restored” between the two Koreas. The agreement was aimed at defusing tension and avoiding war on the peninsula.

The measure will enable military training near the demarcation line, which had been restricted by the agreement, the NSC said.