Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said new firepower units have "taken their firing positions" along the border with South Korea, according to Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). She visited frontline areas where soldiers are reinforcing the heavily armed border on Wednesday.
Warning to Seoul
According to state media, Kim Yo Jong said: "Our military leadership underlined the need to make those rogues aware that our new firepower units have taken their firing positions." She warned that troops would "mercilessly eliminate" South Korean forces if warning fire resulted in harm to North Korean territory or personnel. She added that Kim Jong Un had "issued an order to fortify the border with an enemy state to be eternally impregnable."
Loudspeakers Along the Entire Border
On Thursday, Kim Yo Jong also announced that North Korea will place anti-South Korea loudspeakers that will be ready to restart along the entire border with South Korea in days. The statement came just one day after she said the loudspeakers would be in operation along the border from some time this month.
Rumours About Kim Jong Un's Health
Her visit to fortification sites with senior military officials on Wednesday came amid rumours that her brother had died. On Tuesday, however, state media appeared to counter these claims by releasing photographs of the 42-year-old at a public event accompanied by his daughter. The photographs came hours after unverified claims spread online that the leader had gone into a coma and died after being transported to Beijing for urgent medical care.
Wanjun Xie, a US-based Chinese dissident linked to the China Democracy Party, claimed on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday that the North Korean leader had died. Xie alleged that a team of specialists from Beijing's Peking Union Medical College Hospital had been dispatched to North Korea on Saturday to treat Kim Jong Un after a severe haemorrhage. He has circulated unverified claims before, including previous claims that Chinese President Xi Jinping had died and been replaced by a body double.
Psychological Warfare and Rising Tensions
Both North and South Korea have historically used giant loudspeakers along their heavily fortified border to wage psychological warfare. South Korea has broadcast K-pop music, news reports and messages criticising Pyongyang, while North Korea has countered with anti-South Korean propaganda and unsettling sounds, including howling wolves, metallic screeches and eerie wails. The broadcasts have been switched on and off during periods of heightened tensions and diplomatic engagement.
Tensions between North and South Korea have risen in recent years since Pyongyang began installing barbed-wire fences, laying landmines and building anti-tank barriers and military roads along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The latest escalation follows an explosion on September 21 that injured three South Korean soldiers while they were conducting a search operation inside the DMZ, the buffer zone separating the two countries. A joint investigation by South Korea's military and the United Nations Command later concluded that the blast was caused by North Korean landmines deliberately planted south of the Military Demarcation Line. Pyongyang denied responsibility, with Kim Yo Jong accusing Seoul of fabricating the findings for "political and military provocation."
