Front-Line Inspection with 'Top Military Official': "Anti-South Loudspeakers Within October"

[Anchor]

North Korea announced that Kim Yo-jong, a department director of the Workers' Party of Korea, and Marshal Pak Jong-chon, the North's top military official, led the military command to inspect construction sites for "fortifying the southern border." Kim Yo-jong threatened that loudspeakers directed toward South Korea would become operational within this month.

Reported by defense correspondent Kim Tae-hun.

[Reporter]

North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported today that Marshal Pak Jong-chon, an adviser to the Ministry of National Defence, conducted on-site inspections yesterday, October 20, at key locations of the "southern border fortification" construction sites.

KCNA reported that Pak was accompanied on the inspection not only by the Workers' Party leadership, including Director Kim Yo-jong and Secretary Ri Il-hwan, but also by key commanders of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army.

At the site, Pak made clear his intent to immediately counter any future responses from the South Korean military, stating, "When the enemy follows warning broadcasts and warning shots with provocations that threaten the safety of our soldiers in the future, we must launch an immediate counterattack."

Director Kim Yo-jong also made specific threats against the South, remarking, "We must make the mob of hoodlums realize that our new 'firepower sub-units' have taken up firing positions."

However, Kim Yo-jong soon issued a follow-up statement claiming KCNA had misstated the date, clarifying that she and Pak visited the border not yesterday, but early this morning.

A key South Korean military official told SBS, "Pak Jong-chon, Kim Yo-jong, and their delegation appeared this morning at a fortification construction site on the western front, not far from the Joint Security Area (JSA)."

The official added, "Their inspection was clearly captured by our military's surveillance assets."

Yesterday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Jin Young-seung visited the headquarters of the 5th Corps, which oversees the central front, to review military readiness, and North Korea's move appears to be conscious of that visit.

In her follow-up statement, Kim Yo-jong threatened that "psychological warfare loudspeakers against the South will become operational across the entire border within October."

Video by Lee Seung-jin | Graphics by Byun Dayoung
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.