North Korea has recently been identified as having installed additional loudspeakers aimed at the South.
A Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official said on the 22nd, "Our military has identified signs of additional loudspeakers being installed in some forward areas of North Korea and is closely monitoring related developments." According to military authorities, it is estimated that two new loudspeakers aimed at the South were installed, with the installation occurring the day before.
Earlier, our military had removed all fixed loudspeakers directed at the North from the 4th to 5th of this month to ease tensions between the North and South. Subsequently, the JCS announced on the 9th that North Korean forces were in the process of dismantling some of the loudspeakers aimed at the South that had been installed in the front.
However, Kim Yo-jong, a vice director of the North Korean Labor Party, denied the JCS announcement in a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency on the 14th, stating, "We have never dismantled the loudspeakers deployed along the border, nor do we have any intention to do so."
North Korea originally dismantled two of the more than 40 loudspeakers aimed at the South, but it was reported that one of them was immediately restored, leaving only one still dismantled. However, with the installation of the two new loudspeakers, the total number of loudspeakers aimed at the South has effectively increased by one.
The additional installation of North Korea's loudspeakers aimed at the South occurred during the ongoing Korea-U.S. joint exercise, the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), which began on the 18th.