"Not Ruling Out Loudspeakers Toward North Korea": Visiting the Border Area

[Anchor]

After North Korea's Kim Yo-jong threatened to consider resuming loudspeaker broadcasts toward South Korea, South Korean military authorities stated that if the North does so, they will not rule out resuming loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea in response. Border residents are already deeply concerned.

Reporter Kim A-yeong visited the scene.

[Reporter]

This is the view of the Gaepung County area in North Korea, seen from the Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

A tower-shaped loudspeaker facility aimed at the South, stacked with multiple speakers, was captured by SBS cameras.

It is not airing any broadcasts yet.

The government first halted loudspeaker broadcasts directed at North Korea last year as a trust-building measure toward Pyongyang.

North Korea, which had been airing noise broadcasts toward the South, had also turned off its broadcasts in response.

Now, North Korea's Kim Yo-jong has brought up considering the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts, taking issue with warning broadcasts and warning shots by the South Korean military near the Military Demarcation Line.

This was interpreted as a threat warning not to interfere with their so-called "border fortification" work.

[Hong Min / Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification: It seems there is a strong intention to exert pressure, judging that they need to concentrate on the remaining workload as much as possible before heading into the winter season.]

Border area residents are already fraught with worry.

North Korea's loudspeaker broadcasts toward the South work by blaring deafening noise to prevent North Korean residents and soldiers from hearing South Korea's loudspeaker broadcasts.

For residents who suffered from the painful noise for nearly a year starting in July two years ago, it is a memory they never want to recall again.

[Shin / Resident of Paju, Gyeonggi Province: Ghost-like sounds kept coming out. Children and people living nearby couldn't sleep. Daily life was disrupted, and people talked a lot about moving away. If they do that again? Then living here will be truly unbearable.]

The Ministry of National Defense expressed "grave concern" and stated that it would sternly retaliate if North Korea stages further provocations.

[Jeong Bit-na / Defense Ministry Spokesperson: Warning broadcasts and warning shots are legitimate defensive measures to prevent North Korean troops from violating the Military Demarcation Line and to repel intruding forces.]

A Defense Ministry official noted, "Wouldn't we also need a proportional response?" if North Korea resumes its loudspeaker broadcasts, adding, "We do not rule out any measures."

This indicates that the option of resuming loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea is being kept open, and if North Korea resumes broadcasts and the South Korean military responds in kind, heightened tensions in the border area are inevitable.

(Video by Park Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Jeong Seong-hun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.