Kim Yo Jong Says Loudspeakers Will Blare Along the Entire Korean Border Within Days as Tension Rises

Tension on the Korean Peninsula is rising again, with calls for immediate talks between North and South Korea to head off an accidental military clash. The latest push followed back-to-back hostile statements from Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. She said loudspeakers broadcasting anti-South Korea propaganda would be switched on within days along the entire 160-mile border.

She also warned Seoul of "the most horrible and distressing situation" if South Korea keeps up what Pyongyang calls interference in North Korea's internal affairs. On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong joined senior military officials on a visit to fortification sites along the border, where she said North Korean tactical units had taken up positions. She accused South Korean forces of broadcasting warning messages and firing warning shots at multiple locations near the line. South Korea acknowledged firing warning shots and called them "legitimate and defensive measures."

Bob Carlin, a former State Department analyst who took part in negotiations with Pyongyang and has followed the country for four decades, told CBS News that the reference to tactical units is a cause for concern. "Whether these have heavy weaponry or not, this represents a change in the situation along the front," he said. Kim Yo Jong also spoke of the possibility of "deploying more tactical strike means." Carlin said that sounds more like artillery and battlefield missile units, and that moving them up would be an even more serious change.

In the background this week were online rumors that Kim Jong Un had died after a brain hemorrhage. The claims were uncorroborated, and the regime answered them by having state media release photos of the 42-year-old leader touring a clothing and footwear exhibition in Pyongyang with his wife and teenage daughter, Kim Ju Ae. South Korean intelligence has labeled Kim Ju Ae the likely heir apparent. Experts say Kim Yo Jong has been asserting her own authority too, and Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said her frequent public appearances serve to show her brother she is working hard while raising her profile with Seoul and Washington.

Yang said both governments should focus on easing the situation along the demilitarized zone. "The issue of North Korean troops moving southward takes precedence," he told CBS News. "The realistic and rational way to resolve the problem is not through further border fortification, but by sitting down together and finding a mutually acceptable solution through dialogue."

The DMZ was set up under the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War, and about 28,500 U.S. troops are still based in South Korea. Since 2024, the North has reinforced its side of the zone with mines, barriers and fencing in what it calls a permanent border. Last month, two South Korean soldiers were seriously wounded by what Seoul says were North Korean mines laid as part of those works.

South Korea announced Thursday that it would tell the U.N. Security Council that the mine blasts, in its view, violate the armistice. Seoul has demanded an apology and the opening of talks with Pyongyang to prevent further escalation. The North has not said it will agree to either.