Kim Yo-jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, threatened on Oct. 19 that the North is considering a reinforced deployment of tactical strike assets and a resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at South Korea, citing warning announcements and warning shots by South Korean troops along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL).
In a statement released that evening titled "We Do Not Defend Sovereignty With Words," Kim said the situation along the southern border is "very unstable" and accused the South, saying a "grim situation is being created by the reckless bravado of South Korean military gangsters." She warned that the North is "considering a reinforced deployment of tactical strike assets near the entire southern border line and a resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts toward South Korea, as well as other measures deemed necessary and appropriate."
The southern border line referred to by North Korea means the MDL as seen from the North. Since 2024, Pyongyang has defined inter-Korean relations as those of "two hostile states" and has claimed the MDL is a national border. The statement drew attention because it went beyond criticism and warnings directed at the South to suggest the possibility of concrete military action.
Kim claimed that "South Korean military war maniacs have, since August, carried out loudspeaker warning broadcast provocations while raising groundless complaints that our personnel mobilized for barrier construction along the southern border had crossed the line, and have fired warning shots with automatic rifles and large-caliber machine guns." She added that "from Aug. 1 through Oct. 17, loudspeaker warning broadcast provocations reached as many as 2,870 instances, and warning shots 201 instances."
She also cited specific units, saying that "the places where loudspeaker warning broadcast provocations are frequent are the guard posts in the areas of the South Korean Army's 7th and 15th Infantry Divisions under the 2nd Corps and the 21st and 22nd Infantry Divisions under the 3rd Corps," and that "the site where warning shot provocations are being carried out is Military Police Guard Post 278 in the Demilitarized Zone of the 21st Infantry Division under the 3rd Corps, and from Oct. 1 to 17 alone, loudspeaker warning broadcast provocations amounted to 998 instances and warning shots to 91 instances."
Kim also criticized the North Korea policy of the Lee Jae-myung administration. She claimed that "the Lee Jae-myung administration, which from the start of its term advocated reconciliation and peace and staged a conciliatory posture, is in fact pushing confrontational schemes against our republic that far surpass those of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, a vicious conservative government that openly promoted anti-communism."