Tensions have flared again on the border between North and South Korea. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has issued a stern warning to South Korea.
She said Pyongyang would finish preparations by the end of October to install loudspeakers along the border to broadcast anti-South Korean propaganda. She also warned that the North would take countermeasures against any provocative act.
Kim Yo Jong said after inspecting border defences and fortification sites with senior military officers that the loudspeakers would be in place along the border by the end of October. She said North Korean military units had also taken up tactical positions.
She warned that South Korea would face a very dire and painful situation if Seoul kept interfering in Pyongyang’s internal affairs.
She also accused South Korean troops of making warning broadcasts and firing warning shots at several points along the border. South Korea said the shots fired at the border were a lawful, defensive measure.
Addressing South Korean troops, Kim Yo Jong said that if warning shots caused even slight damage to North Korean territory or to any member of its military, North Korean troops would take tough action against South Korean forces and show no mercy.
After the threat, South Korea’s defence and unification ministries called on the two sides to return to talks to settle their disputes.
The North’s preparations to restart its loudspeakers pose a new challenge for the government of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. Since taking office in June last year, he has pursued diplomatic initiatives to ease hostility with North Korea. But the recent threats and the situation on the border have made relations between the two countries tense again.
The two Koreas have long used loudspeakers in border areas to broadcast propaganda against each other. South Korea’s loudspeakers played K-pop songs and international news, broadcasts that angered the North Korean government. Pyongyang answered with loudspeakers of its own along the border.
The Korean War of 1950 to 1953 ended with an armistice agreement, after which a demilitarised zone was set up between the two countries. The long-standing hostility has still not fully faded.
Since 2024, North Korea has stepped up measures in the border area such as laying mines, building barricades and putting up barbed-wire fences. The country is reported to be strengthening its position on the border and also working towards a permanent border with South Korea.
Claims and counterclaims over a mine blast
Amid the new tensions, the two countries are also at odds over a mine explosion. South Korea says two of its soldiers were seriously injured in a blast last month caused by mines North Korea had newly laid in the demilitarised zone.
North Korea has denied responsibility. Pyongyang says South Korea’s allegation is baseless and staged.
In response, South Korea’s foreign ministry is preparing to send a formal letter to the UN Security Council. Seoul plans to state in the letter that the blast was caused by mines laid by North Korea. In South Korea’s view, such acts are a serious violation of the Korean War armistice.
Seoul will also demand a formal apology from Pyongyang over the incident. At the same time, South Korea is stressing that the dispute should be settled through talks rather than letting tensions on the border rise further.
Preparations to install loudspeakers on the border, claims and counterclaims over the mine blast and military warnings have together raised fears that the long-standing hostility between the two Koreas will deepen once more.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report