[2026 Parliamentary Audit] NIS: "Reports of North Korea Resuming Loudspeaker Broadcasts Toward South Korea Are Unfounded... Resident's Mistaken Report" (Roundup)

Kim's Visit to China: "Possible Intent to Convey North Korea's Position on U.S. Dialogue to Beijing"
Yoon Geonyeong: "We Should Take a Neutral View on Whether Talks Will Materialize"
Forced Repatriation of North Korean Sailors Also Raised at Audit

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said that recent reports claiming North Korea had resumed loudspeaker broadcasts toward South Korea were unfounded and stemmed from a mistaken report by a resident in a border area. It also said that while the possibility of a shift toward dialogue between North Korea and the United States has been raised in light of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's recent visit to China, it remains difficult to be optimistic about the prospects for talks.

On the 29th, Yoon Geonyeong of the Democratic Party of Korea and Yoo Youngha of the People Power Party, the respective ruling and opposition party secretaries on the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, shared these remarks during an additional briefing on the NIS parliamentary audit.

Yoon Geon-young of the Democratic Party of Korea (right) and Yoo Young-ha of the People Power Party, the ruling and opposition parties' floor secretaries on the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, brief reporters after a full committee meeting at the National Assembly last month. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju

In response to a question from a People Power Party lawmaker about whether North Korea had resumed broadcasts toward South Korea, Yoo said, "The NIS director said that after checking a report from a resident of Daeseong-ri, it was determined to be mistaken." He added, "Some reports that North Korea used loudspeakers toward South Korea are inaccurate."

The NIS also analyzed Kim Jong Un's recent visit to Dandong, China, in connection with the prospect of dialogue between North Korea and the United States. At a briefing after questions in the morning, the NIS said that the two sides' positions on the conditions for dialogue had not yet converged, but that a shift toward talks could occur around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

The NIS said Kim's recent visit to China may have been intended to convey North Korea's position on dialogue with the United States to China's leadership. It cited as grounds for this assessment the fact that Kim was accompanied on the trip by a large number of foreign affairs officials, including Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, and that Choe was seen engaging in close discussions with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

However, the NIS did not interpret the visit as a positive signal from North Korea for resuming dialogue with the United States. Yoon explained, "This does not mean we should be optimistic, nor does it mean we should take a negative view. The point is that the specific message Kim conveyed and the response to it require further confirmation."

The NIS also said there were no problems with overall cooperation amid controversy over restrictions on intelligence sharing between South Korea and the United States. Yoon said, "The NIS director emphasized very strongly that there are no problems with intelligence cooperation between South Korea and the United States." He added, "The message was that people should trust that there are no gaps in intelligence cooperation."

The 2019 forced repatriation of North Korean sailors at sea in the East Sea was also discussed during the audit. Yoon said, "The NIS director expressed the view, on the basis of his personal opinion, that it was right to repatriate the North Korean sailors, who were accused of murdering 16 people."

In response, Yoo, the People Power Party's secretary on the committee, argued that under current law, North Korean defectors cannot be denied entry or arbitrarily repatriated, even if they have committed serious crimes such as murder. Yoo said, "Excluding someone from settlement assistance and repatriating them without applying domestic law are entirely different matters. The intent of current law is that they must be dealt with after trial in a domestic court."

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