[News Today] “N. Korea removes border loudspeakers”

[LEAD]
North Korea has begun dismantling some of its frontline loudspeakers.

The move comes days after Seoul took down its own loudspeakers, mirroring Pyongyang's earlier response to the South halting broadcasts.

[REPORT]
This is the strange noise which North Korea had broadcast toward South Korea using loudspeakers last year.

Yu Jae-on / Ganghwado resident (Sept. 2024)
This strange noise was creepy. I can't describe the feelings I get when I hear that sound.

The North Korean military started removing the loudspeakers used in their anti-South Korea broadcast from the morning of August 9th.

The regime has been installing loudspeakers up until recently, amounting to roughly 40 locations along the front line.

It was reported that the loudspeakers were already dismantled at some of those locations.

Lee Sung-jun / S. Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff
We need to check if loudspeakers were removed from all locations. We will continue to monitor N. Korean military's related activities.

The South Korean military stopped loudspeaker broadcasting on June 11th at President Lee Jae Myung's order. North Korea stopped its broadcast eight hours later.

When South Korea took down all of its roughly 20 loudspeakers along the border on August 5th, North Korea responded in the same manner four days later.

Chung Dong-young / Minister of Unification (July 25)
The suspension of anti-N. Korea psychological war and loudspeaker broadcasting signaled the restoration of inter-Korean trust, so two sides will start rebuilding broken trust.

Earlier, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the regime's leader and the vice department director of the Workers' Party's central committee, said that she wasn't interested in any proposal from Seoul while mentioning the suspension of anti-North Korean leaflets and permission of individual tourists to North Korea.

Given that the North has responded in kind to the South's dismantling of loudspeakers, however, there may be additional changes in Pyongyang's stance toward Seoul.