South Korea's military said it has detected signs that North Korea is servicing loudspeakers aimed across the border, after Pyongyang signaled it would resume propaganda broadcasts.
Jang Do-young, head of the public affairs office at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing on the 22nd that "routine maintenance activity has been detected even before the series of statements." Troop and weapons movements mentioned by Kim Yo-jong, director of the general affairs department of the ruling Workers' Party, including the occupation of firing positions by a "new artillery unit" and "new response means along the border," have "not been detected at this point, but we are watching closely because North Korea has made the claim," Jang added.
In a statement the same day, Kim said "new response means" had entered a state of readiness along the entire border and that loudspeakers directed at the South would be on standby within days.
Jeong Bit-na, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, said of the possibility that the North restarts its loudspeakers: "If North Korea does something, I think we naturally need to take proportionate measures." The Ministry of Unification, however, said that "if the two Koreas resume loudspeaker broadcasts, residents of border areas will suffer again and concerns over inter-Korean clashes will grow." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will send a letter to the president of the U.N. Security Council under the name of the ambassador to the United Nations on the 22nd. The move is intended to formally protest to the North and leave a record, as was done after the 2015 wooden-box land mine incident.