A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official told The Korea Herald on Nov. 2 that no North Korean loudspeaker operation had been detected after Pyongyang’s October target passed without a confirmed restart.
Kim Yo-jong, a department director at the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee, set an operating goal of “within October” in a statement carried by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 21. She linked the plan to what she described as South Korean warning broadcasts and warning shots near the Military Demarcation Line during North Korean fortification work. In a follow-up statement on Oct. 22, Kim said the speakers would be put on standby within days. EconoTimes previously reported Kim’s standby timeline.
Residents in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, said they heard sounds on Oct. 29, including brief music in Daeseongdong, Yonhap News Agency reported. The JCS said it had received no reports from units at the front that they heard broadcasts. Yonhap reported that Rep. Yoo Yeong-ha said National Intelligence Service Director Lee Jong-seok had called the accounts “not true.” The reports did not establish that North Korean loudspeakers had been used.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Oct. 20 it would take corresponding action if North Korean broadcasts resumed and did not rule out a proportional response. South Korea restarted its own border broadcasts on June 9, 2024, after North Korea sent trash-carrying balloons south, Yonhap reported. Korea.net, a South Korean government news site, said President Lee Jae Myung ordered the broadcasts suspended on June 11, 2025; South Korea’s military said the North appeared to stop its noise broadcasts the next day. The Unification Ministry has said earlier exchanges caused “unbearable suffering” for residents on both sides of the border.
