South Korea reports that North Korea is taking down loudspeakers at the border, a move that follows Seoul’s removal of its own loudspeakers earlier in the week.
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), North Korea has started dismantling some of its border loudspeakers. This action appears to be in response to South Korea’s removal of approximately 20 of its loudspeakers earlier this week.
Pyongyang had set up about 40 loudspeakers to broadcast a range of disturbing sounds, including metallic scraping and eerie, ghost-like noises, towards the South. For almost a year, these broadcasts had been a constant source of irritation for residents living in border areas like Paju, Gimpo, and Yeoncheon.
North Korea stopped its noise campaign at midnight on June 12, just hours after South Korea ceased its own loudspeaker broadcasts following an order from newly elected President Lee Jae-myung.
President Lee, who assumed office in June after a quick election, has aimed to reverse the escalating tensions of previous years under his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol. Soon after taking office, Lee suspended South Korea’s cross-border propaganda campaign, which included K-pop, news, and political messages. He also encouraged civic groups to stop sending anti-North propaganda leaflets and expressed a willingness to engage in talks without preconditions.
In 2018, both Koreas dismantled all loudspeakers under the Panmunjom Declaration, but the agreement fell apart. South Korea had restarted loudspeaker operations in mid-2024 in response to North Korea sending thousands of trash-filled balloons across the border, which was retaliation for South Korean activists launching leaflets into the North. Seoul presented the broadcasts, which could travel over 20 kilometers, as a means of delivering “messages of light and hope” to the North Korean people and military.
The new South Korean president has pledged to end both the propaganda broadcasts and the leaflet campaigns. His predecessor, Yoon, was impeached in December and indicted on charges of insurrection after briefly imposing martial law, citing an impending “rebellion” by pro-Pyongyang forces within the opposition.
Seoul and its major ally, Washington, technically remain at war with Pyongyang since 1953. North Korea has consistently condemned joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States over the years, viewing them as practice for an attack.
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