Oct 22, Kathmandu - North Korea is preparing to switch on large loudspeakers along its border with South Korea within days, as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, made the announcement after inspecting border areas, state news agency KCNA reported Thursday. A day earlier, she said broadcasts would resume along the border sometime in October.

The two Koreas have long used loudspeakers for cross-border propaganda. North Korea has reportedly broadcast unsettling animal sounds, while South Korea has aired K-pop music and news critical of Pyongyang, according to The Guardian.

If the broadcasts resume, it will be the first time in 16 months that the two countries have used border loudspeakers. South Korea halted its broadcasts in June 2025, days after President Lee Jae Myung took office, as part of efforts to ease tensions. Its military removed the speakers in August.

A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesperson said Thursday that Seoul would consider a response if North Korea restarted broadcasts, but that no decision had been made. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had already observed routine maintenance on North Korean loudspeakers.

Tensions rose further after a landmine blast south of the Military Demarcation Line in September injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. Seoul and the United Nations Command, which oversees the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War, concluded that the blast was caused by a North Korean anti-personnel mine and called it a violation of the armistice. Pyongyang denied involvement, describing the incident as a “self-staged drama.”

North Korea has also stepped up fortifications along the border, laying mines, installing barbed wire and building anti-tank barriers since Kim Jong Un declared in December 2023 that the two Koreas were “two hostile states.”

During Wednesday’s inspection with senior military official Pak Jong Chon, Kim Yo Jong said the border had been more clearly demarcated and turned into a stronger fortress. She said Kim Jong Un had ordered it to become a “permanent line that must never be crossed.”

South Korea says North Korean troops have repeatedly crossed the 250-kilometre military boundary during construction work. South Korean forces have responded with loudspeaker warnings and warning shots.