South Korea has begun dismantling loudspeakers used to blast anti-North Korea propaganda across the border, marking a significant step by President Lee Jae-myung’s new administration to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
“Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,” said Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence, during a press briefing on Monday.
The move comes just weeks after President Lee took office and swiftly ordered the military to shut off the broadcasts. The decision aligns with his broader policy of reviving stalled inter-Korean dialogue and easing hostilities, following years of rising tensions under his predecessor’s hardline stance.
“It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military’s state of readiness,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
All the loudspeakers placed along the heavily fortified border will be dismantled by the end of the week, although the ministry did not specify how many units were being removed.
President Lee, elected after the impeachment of his predecessor who attempted to invoke martial law, campaigned on a promise to lower tensions and seek peaceful engagement with Pyongyang.
The loudspeaker broadcasts had resumed last year in retaliation for North Korea’s provocative act of sending balloons filled with trash across the border into the South.
Despite Seoul’s shift in tone, North Korea has responded with open hostility. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a scathing statement rejecting any talks.
“If the ROK expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is a more serious miscalculation,” she said last week, using the acronym for South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.
Relations between the two Koreas have remained frozen, especially after North Korea deepened military ties with Russia in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Korean War technically never ended, as the 1950–53 conflict concluded with an armistice, not a peace treaty leaving both sides in a state of continued military tension.
President Lee has maintained that he is willing to pursue dialogue with North Korea without preconditions, in contrast to his predecessor’s firm stance. Whether the dismantling of the loudspeakers will be seen by Pyongyang as a meaningful gesture or another failed attempt remains uncertain.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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