Kim Yo Jong says North Korea will put border loudspeakers on standby within days
Kim Yo Jong warned Seoul of "the most horrible and distressing situation" and said anti-South Korea loudspeakers would be on standby along the border within days, escalating the bitter dispute over last month's mine blast.
North Korea will put anti-South Korea loudspeakers on standby along the entire border within days, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Thursday, warning Seoul of “the most horrible and distressing situation” if it continues what Pyongyang calls interference, Reuters reports.
In a statement carried by state media KCNA, Kim said: “Our new counter means will get into the alert for duty at all the southern border line and the loudspeakers against the ROK will be on standby in a matter of days.” She added that Pyongyang would continue fortifying its southern border, the Straits Times reports.
It was her second statement within hours. On Wednesday evening, after inspecting border fortification sites with senior military officials, she said the North would activate the loudspeakers by the end of October.
The trigger was criticism from Kim Byung-joo, special defence-policy adviser to President Lee Jae Myung, who accused Pyongyang of planting mines that wounded South Korean soldiers and told it not to escalate, the Korea Times reports. The Sept 21 DMZ blast injured three soldiers, two seriously; Seoul and the UN Command blame North Korean mines planted south of the Military Demarcation Line, which Pyongyang denies as a fabrication.
Lim Eul-chul, professor at Seoul’s Kyungnam University, said the warnings did not necessarily mean the speakers would be activated, but presented Lee’s administration with an “enormous dilemma” over balancing engagement with containing North Korean military activity.
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