Sitting on Self-Propelled Guns, North Korean Troops 'Conspicuously' Rotate Barrels

[Anchor]

Footage captured by our cameras shows North Korea conspicuously moving and deploying its main self-propelled artillery southward. Coming amid Pyongyang's announcement that it would resume anti-South loudspeaker broadcasts within this month, analysis suggests this move is aimed at escalating tensions.

Kim Minjun reports.

[Reporter]

This is the coastal area of Gaepung County, Hwanghae Province in the North, viewed from the Aegibong Observatory in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province.

Across the Han River, this area is located just about 1.5 kilometers away from North Korea.

Two North Korean soldiers are sitting atop a self-propelled gun inscribed in white letters with the slogan: "Annihilate the U.S. imperialist aggressors, the sworn enemy of the Korean people!"

Using the self-propelled gun as a seat, they stretch out their legs and converse, while the gun barrel is also observed moving slowly from side to side and up and down.

The weapon is presumed to be the North Korean military's "122 mm self-propelled gun" with a maximum range of 24 kilometers, a key artillery asset heavily deployed along the front line.

About three North Korean self-propelled guns positioned near the riverbank are clearly visible.

While the construction of tactical roads or barbed-wire fences has been spotted from time to time, experts assess that exposing self-propelled artillery in this manner is unusual.

Artillery weapons, which normally need to avoid location exposure, were brought down virtually unprotected and close enough to be filmed by South Korean cameras, prompting analysis that this is a "show-of-force" display intended to heighten tensions.

[Yang Uk / Research Fellow, The Asan Institute for Policy Studies: "Rather than 'reinforcing firepower,' they are 'visualizing firepower.' If actual combat were about to take place, the desire to conceal would be stronger; they would not expose themselves like that."]

With North Korea having declared that it would resume loudspeaker broadcasts against the South within this month, the sudden appearance of self-propelled artillery has stirred deep unease among border residents.

[Kim Yu-seong / Border Area Resident: "When that roaring sound occurs, you know that sound like a ghost wailing. In winter, if you close the doors, it is somewhat bearable, but in the summer, nobody sleeps with their doors closed."]

Anxiety is also growing as explosive noises from the North Korean military detected along the front line near Ganghwa County, Incheon, have reached about 900 times this year.

[Border Area Resident: "It makes a tremendously loud noise, just like artillery fire. You get startled. We half-jokingly say, 'Aren't they invading?'"]

Border area residents in Paju held a press conference opposing mutual slander through loudspeakers and military confrontation.

(Video by Yang JIHOON | Video Editing by Choi Jin-hwa | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.