SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has begun dismantling some of its loudspeakers installed along the tense border with South Korea, according to the South’s military on Saturday. The move comes shortly after Seoul removed its own front-line loudspeakers that had been used to broadcast anti-North Korean messages in a gesture aimed at lowering cross-border tensions.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul confirmed the activity but declined to specify where the North Korean loudspeakers were being taken down. It also remained unclear whether Pyongyang intends to remove all of the devices or only selected ones.
In recent months, residents living near the border in South Korea had raised complaints about loud and disruptive sounds coming from the North’s speaker systems. The broadcasts reportedly included bizarre audio clips like animal howls and the clanging of gongs — interpreted as a countermeasure to South Korea’s propaganda and K-pop broadcasts.
The North appears to have halted these broadcasts in June, coinciding with the early steps taken by South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung. Upon taking office, Lee suspended the South’s own speaker operations as part of his administration’s broader efforts to de-escalate tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean military began dismantling its loudspeakers on Monday, though it has not clarified whether they are being stored for future use or permanently retired.
North Korea, which tightly controls domestic information and reacts strongly to criticism of its leadership, has not officially acknowledged taking down its equipment. Under South Korea’s previous conservative government, daily loudspeaker broadcasts resumed last year following a long pause. The reactivation was a response to North Korea’s provocative act of sending balloons filled with trash and propaganda into the South.
Those broadcasts were deliberately designed to unsettle the North’s leadership, featuring anti-regime messages and popular South Korean music, including K-pop. Such tactics have long been part of Cold War-era psychological warfare, aggravating already strained relations fueled by North Korea’s expanding nuclear arsenal and increased South Korea-U.S. military cooperation, including joint drills with Japan.
President Lee, who assumed office in June after a snap election triggered by the impeachment of his conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, has expressed a desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. North Korea had rejected Yoon’s hardline stance and avoided dialogue throughout his term.
Despite Lee’s shift in policy, North Korea has not responded positively. In late July, Kim Yo Jong — sister of leader Kim Jong Un and a prominent voice in North Korean politics — dismissed Seoul’s outreach efforts. She criticized the South’s continued reliance on its military alliance with the United States, calling it indistinguishable from previous administrations.
Kim Yo Jong later issued another statement, rejecting suggestions that North Korea is interested in resuming denuclearization talks. She also dismissed potential diplomatic moves by the United States, indicating that Pyongyang now prioritizes strengthening its relationship with Russia amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Looking ahead, tensions could flare again as South Korea and the United States are set to begin large-scale joint military exercises on August 18. North Korea routinely denounces these drills as rehearsals for invasion and often uses them as justification for conducting missile tests or other military provocations aimed at advancing its weapons programs.
