Kim Yo Jong: "Considering Resuming Broadcasts Toward South Korea, Deploying More Strike Assets Along Southern Border"

Kim Yo Jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's Workers' Party, said on October 19 that North Korea was considering deploying additional tactical strike assets near the border and resuming loudspeaker broadcasts toward South Korea, while condemning the South Korean military's warning broadcasts and warning shots in areas around the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Kim Yo Jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's Workers' Party. Yonhap News Agency

In a statement released that day by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) under the title "We Do Not Speak of Defending Our Sovereignty in Words," Kim claimed that "the situation along the southern border is very unstable."

She said, "We are considering deploying additional tactical strike assets along the entire southern border and resuming loudspeaker broadcasts toward South Korea," adding that "other measures deemed necessary and appropriate are also being considered." She did not specify the types of strike assets or when they might be deployed.

North Korea has continued its "fortification of the border" by installing fences and anti-tank barriers and laying mines near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). The South Korean military responds with warning broadcasts and warning shots when North Korean troops cross the MDL while working on these projects. Kim claimed that the South Korean military's response threatened the safety of North Korean troops and obstructed the construction work.

Kim claimed that the South Korean military conducted 2,870 warning broadcasts and fired 201 warning shots from August 1 through October 17. She said that more than 350 warning broadcasts and more than 60 warning shots were concentrated between October 15 and 17. She again claimed that a recent landmine explosion was a "self-inflicted incident" by South Korea and condemned what she said was an increasingly blatant response by the South Korean military afterward. North Korea claims that the explosion of a landmine it planted in the DMZ on the western front on September 21, which injured three South Korean soldiers, was a "self-inflicted incident" by South Korea.

Addressing the Lee Jae-myung administration, she claimed that "its anti-republic confrontation moves are far more blatant than those of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a vile conservative government that openly incited anti-communism." She also threatened that "Seoul will clearly regret it and face risks that will be difficult to bear because of the needless bravado of its military gangsters."

South Korea's government has halted its loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea and dismantled the facilities in an effort to restore inter-Korean trust. In this statement, North Korea has once again raised the possibility of resuming its broadcasts toward South Korea. It has been about one year and four months since its noise broadcasts toward the South stopped in June 2025.

The previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration resumed loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea in June 2024 in response to North Korea's launches of balloons carrying waste and trash. North Korea also began noise broadcasts toward South Korea in July that year, affecting residents in border areas.

The Lee Jae-myung administration halted loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea in June 2025 and began dismantling the loudspeakers in August of that year. North Korea's remarks about the possibility of resuming broadcasts toward South Korea have raised concerns that tensions in border areas could escalate and that residents could again suffer from noise.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.