Seoul, South Korea — North Korean troops have begun removing propaganda loudspeakers along the heavily fortified border, South Korea’s military confirmed on Saturday, in what appears to be a reciprocal step after Seoul’s recent move to dismantle its own devices.
The action comes just days after President Lee Jae Myung’s administration took down loudspeakers on the southern side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) as part of a broader effort to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The two countries had already halted their cross-border broadcasts in June, shortly after Lee’s election, ending months of blaring K-pop, news bulletins, and, from the North, bizarre and unsettling noises.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said they had detected North Korean soldiers dismantling the devices in some frontline areas on Saturday morning, but stressed it was still unclear whether the process was taking place along the entire border.
The loudspeaker standoff began last year when Seoul resumed broadcasts in retaliation for thousands of trash-filled balloons floated south by Pyongyang. The North claimed the balloon barrage was in response to anti-regime leaflets sent over the border by South Korean activists.
Under Lee’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, relations between the two Koreas reached one of their lowest points in years, as Seoul adopted a hard-line stance and Pyongyang deepened ties with Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lee has since shifted course, calling on civic groups to halt leaflet campaigns and expressing willingness to hold talks without preconditions.
The two Koreas remain technically at war, as the 1950–53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
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