Military, Loudspeaker Broadcasts to North Korea... "Further Actions Depend on North Korea"

On the afternoon of the 9th, our military operated loudspeakers facing North Korea in the frontline area in response to North Korea's release of balloons carrying waste toward the South.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated in a text message sent to reporters covering the Ministry of National Defense that "whether additional loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea will be conducted depends entirely on North Korea's actions."

Accordingly, if North Korea retaliates against the loudspeaker broadcasts with provocations, the military is expected to conduct additional broadcasts toward North Korea.

The Joint Chiefs emphasized, "We clearly state that all responsibility for this situation lies with North Korea and strongly urge an immediate halt to despicable acts such as releasing balloons carrying waste."

They added, "Under the firm ROK-US combined defense posture, our military will closely monitor North Korea's various activities and maintain the capability and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocations."

According to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National Security Council (NSC) to resume loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea, the military reportedly operated several fixed loudspeakers in the frontline area for about two hours starting around 5 p.m. that day.

Before their dismantlement and withdrawal under the Panmunjom Declaration agreed upon by the South and North Korean leaders in April 2018, fixed loudspeakers facing North Korea were installed at 24 frontline locations, and 16 mobile units were also available.

On this day, only some of the fixed loudspeakers owned by our military were reportedly operated.

The Joint Chiefs stated that they cannot provide specific details such as the time the loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea began, the locations of the loudspeakers, or the types and quantities of equipment used, as it is a military operation.