[Anchor]

North Korean self-propelled howitzers deployed conspicuously further south were captured on our cameras. With Pyongyang having announced plans to resume anti-South loudspeaker broadcasts, anxiety among residents in border areas is mounting.

Reporter Kim Min-jun has our top story.

[Reporter]

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

It is an area separated by the Han River, just about 1.5 kilometers away from North Korea.

Two North Korean soldiers sit atop a self-propelled howitzer painted with a slogan in white lettering: "Annihilate the American imperialist aggressors, the sworn enemy of the Korean people!"

Using the artillery piece as a chair, they stretch out their legs and converse, while the gun barrel is also observed slowly moving from side to side and up and down.

It is presumed to be the North Korean military's "122 mm self-propelled gun" with a maximum range of 24 kilometers, a core artillery asset deployed in large numbers along the front line.

About three North Korean self-propelled howitzers positioned close to the riverside are clearly visible.

While troops have often been seen building tactical roads or barbed-wire fences, analysts note that openly exposing artillery like this is unusual.

Deploying artillery pieces—which normally must avoid location exposure—so defenselessly that they can be filmed by South Korean cameras is seen as a "show-of-force" demonstration aimed at ratcheting up tensions.

[Yang Uk / Research Fellow, Asan Institute for Policy Studies: "Rather than 'reinforcing firepower,' they made their firepower visible. If an actual engagement were about to break out, they would try much harder to conceal it rather than expose it like that."]

With North Korea having declared that it will resume anti-South loudspeaker broadcasts within this month, the appearance of the self-propelled guns has left border residents unsettled.

[Kim Yoo-sung / Resident of Ganghwa County, Incheon: "When that roaring sound goes off, you know that sound like a ghost wailing? In winter, it's not as bad if you shut the doors, but in summer, nobody sleeps with their doors closed."]

The fact that explosive sounds from the North Korean military detected along the front line near Ganghwa County, Incheon, have reached around 900 times so far this year is also heightening anxiety.

[Resident of Ganghwa County, Incheon: "It's extremely loud, like artillery fire. It startles us. We jokingly say, 'Aren't they invading?'"]

Residents in the border area of Paju held a press conference opposing mutual slander via loudspeakers and military confrontation.

Video by Yang JIHOON | Video Editing by Choi Jin-hwa | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung