Propaganda War Heats Up: North Korea Threatens Action Over South Korea’s Loudspeaker Broadcasts

Following the South Korean government’s decision to suspend the 9/19 Comprehensive Military Agreement, North Korea has warned of a new response to the continued distribution of anti-North leaflets and the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts.

Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Director of the Workers’ Party of Korea and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency on the 9th that the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts towards North Korea is the prelude to a hazardous situation. “If South Korea continues to spread leaflets and broadcast loudspeakers across the border, they will undoubtedly witness our new response,” she warned.

She further remarked that the embarrassment of continually having to collect leaflets would become a routine occurrence for South Korea. She also warned Seoul sternly, urging an immediate halt to these actions, which she described as dangerous and likely to provoke further confrontations. She also called on Seoul to reflect on its actions.

On the afternoon of the 9th, the South Korean military carried out a broadcast using fixed loudspeakers in the forward area for about 2 hours, re-broadcasting “Voice of Freedom,” a psychological warfare broadcast towards North Korea.

The resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts towards North Korea is a response to North Korea’s third release of garbage balloons from the night of the 8th to the morning of the 9th, a decision made at the Standing Committee of the National Security Council (NSC) emergency meeting held on the 9th.

In 2015, when loudspeaker broadcasts resumed following the PMD series mine incident, North Korea responded with targeted gunfire.

Kim said, “Despite our repeated warnings, the situation has worsened as they connived provocative actions that brought political propaganda garbage across our border on the 6th and 7th,” and reported that anti-North leaflets were found in the border area, including Sinchon County, Tosan County in Hwanghae Province, Changpung County in Kaesong, Panmunjom area, and Kosan County, Pyongyang County, Cheorwon County in Gangwon Province from the 6th to the 8th.

In response, North Korea confirmed that it had scattered 7.5 tons of toilet paper toward South Korea using about 1,400 devices on the night of the 8th and the early morning of the 9th.

Kim explained that the balloons sent to South Korea contained empty toilet paper rolls without political propaganda, stating, “Our response is nothing more than a justifiable and very low-level reflexive reaction.”

She also noted that although such a response was planned to end on the 9th, the situation changed as South Korea’s loudspeaker provocations began, calling it “the prelude to a perilous situation.”

“The politicians in Seoul, in their unique and bizarre logic, are trying to justify their lip service by regulating freedom of expression and provocation depending on the direction of the wind. They have continued to create a new crisis environment by formalizing their absurd behavior of resuming loudspeaker provocations in response to our actions against their provocative challenges,” she pointed out.