South Korea Removes Loudspeakers Along Border With North Korea

The administration of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has started removing the loudspeakers used to blast propaganda information about the outside world into North Korea.

The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement on Monday that it was working to dismantle the sound projection system along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) with North Korea, as ordered by Lee.

“It is a practical measure that can help ease inter-Korean tensions without affecting the military’s readiness posture,” the ministry told reporters, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

The removal of the fixed speakers, numbering about 20, is expected to be completed by week’s end, ministry spokesperson Col. Lee Kyung-ho said at a press conference update on the measure.

The decision was made by the president without consultations with Pyongyang, the colonel said.

When asked whether Pyongyang was taking action to remove its fixed speakers in return, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it had not detected any such activity by the North.

“North Korea appears to be carrying out maintenance work on its loudspeakers, but there were no signs of dismantling them. … No unusual movement by the North Korean military has been detected so far,” the spokesperson said.

Lee Seeks Dialogue

On June 11, the president ordered the suspension of propaganda broadcasts into North Korea that criticized the communist regime as it looked to revive stalled dialogue with its neighbour. He also banned freedom activists in the south from sending balloons of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the north.

Lee’s administration said the actions, which were touted as part of his election campaign, were an effort to thaw inter-Korean relations and reduce tension along the border. The North also stopped its broadcasts, following the South’s lead, according to South Korean newspaper Korea JoonAng Daily.

Tensions have been high since 2023, when the North shunned dialogue with the administration of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. Pyongyang launched thousands of hot-air balloons full of trash and feces into the south and declared that the two Koreas are two separate “hostile” countries while moving to dismantle symbols of inter-Korean relations and unification.

North Korea had said its balloons were in retaliation for a propaganda campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea, who regularly send inflatables containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, food, medicine, money, and USB sticks loaded with K-pop music videos and dramas across the border.

Yoon responded by amping up a loudspeaker campaign in June 2024. Before that, the loudspeakers had not been in use for six years.

The speakers were first installed in 1963 to broadcast South Korean news, weather, pop music, and criticism of the North Korean regime, aiming to challenge the tightly controlled narrative disseminated by the North’s one-party communist regime. The goal was to encourage North Korean soldiers and residents near the Demilitarized Zone to better understand the life and values of the democratic South, and potentially undermine the legitimacy of the Kim regime while avoiding kinetic conflict.

Pyongyang responded by installing its system of loudspeakers to broadcast its counternarrative as well as disturbing noises like metallic screeching and animal sounds.

Seoul has used its speaker systems periodically over the years, often switching them off or dismantling them during periods when it sought diplomatic engagement. After falling silent in 2004, use increased again in 2015 after two South Korean soldiers on the Demilitarized Zone were injured by a North Korean land mine. In 2016, the speakers were used in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test.

The broadcasts continued until 2018, when inter-Korean summit agreements, facilitated in part by U.S. President Donald Trump, led to a halt in the broadcasts.

North Says ‘No Interest’ in Dialogue

Last week, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, responded to the first official message from the Lee administration, saying that Pyongyang had “no interest” in responding to any proposals from Lee to thaw relations, citing Seoul’s long-standing alliance with the United States and standoff with North Korea.

“We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

The countries remain technically at war after the 1950–53 Korean War ended with an armistice that halted fighting.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.