Overview

• The Lee Jae-myung administration halted propaganda broadcasts along the DMZ in June as a confidence-building measure.
• South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported observing North Korean moves to dismantle or relocate its own loudspeakers in response.
• In her August 14 statement, Kim Yo Jong insisted “we have not removed and have no intention to remove” North Korean border loudspeakers.
• She labeled South Korea a U.S.-aligned threat with no intention of improving relations and dismissed hopes for U.S.-DPRK talks emerging from an upcoming U.S.-Russia summit.
• Conflicting reports—such as a South Korean media claim that only one of roughly 40 loudspeakers was removed—underscore the difficulty of independently verifying de-escalation claims.