By 
August 15th, 2025
Alexa Sporner
Asia Team Human Rights Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
In the beginning of August South Korea reported that it had taken down its propaganda loudspeakers from the North Korean border aiming to ease the political tension between the two countries.
The propaganda loudspeakers were an initiative of the former South Korean government last June, which broadcast anti-Korean messages and some popular Kpop songs. This deepens the tension between the two nations, North Korea also placed its own loudspeakers in the border. These actions greatly disturbed the peace of the locals living near the border (The New York Times, 2025).
This was not the first time South Korea tried to smuggle information to North Korea. Besides the loudspeakers, the South Korean government with the help of certain NGOs, has been secretly importing global content and foreign information with the purpose of showing what life is like to people outside of North Korea. These are done by many different ways such as importing USB pendrives and SD cards. As a response to these acts of the “information war” between the two countries, North Korea has enforced stricter rules and strengthened its control and propaganda (Fortune, 2025).
North Korea’s propaganda system controls the country’s internal political communications to citizens through media outlets including television, music and news outlets, by using the internet as well as through propaganda posters. The aim of such propaganda is for the governing political party to remain in control of the citizens and to further strengthen their political ideology (Hitkari, 2023). The North Korean government also strictly controls the internet and media access of its citizens, banning the access of foreign media, and any violation of these rules results in severe punishment (Fortune, 2025).
Considering this, it is not surprising that the placement of the loudspeakers increased the ongoing tension between North Korea and South Korea. Although South Korea reported that North Korea also shut down its loudspeakers, Kim Yo Jong, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, denied these claims stating that South Korea had removed the speakers and giving false statements out of the new government’s strategy. Additionally, she also claimed that these efforts of South Korea trying to reconcile are false hopes, as the tension is deeper than what such initiative could solve (Al Jazeera, 2025).
Sources and further readings:
Sang-Hun, C. (2025, June 11) South Korea Turns Off Speakers Blasting K-Pop Into North Korea. The New York Times – Asia Pacific, accessed on the 21st August 2025 <https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/world/asia/korea-speakers-propaganda.html>
Nolan, B. (2025, June 4) A smuggled North Korean smartphone reveals how the regime censors information, including screenshotting users activities every five minutes. Fortune, accessed on the 22nd August 2025 <North Korean smartphones have a screenshot feature that monitors users every five minutes | Fortune>
Hitkari, C. (2023, June) Constructing the “Homeworld” and “Alienworld”: Understanding North Korea Through Propaganda Posters. Institute of Chinese Studies Occasional Paper No. 100.
Power, J. (2025, August 14) North Korean leader’s sister says South Korea lying about thaw in ties. Al Jazeera, accessed on the 21st August 2025 <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/14/north-korean-leaders-sister-says-south-korea-lying-about-thaw-in-ties>
