DPRK reinstalling loudspeakers near border with ROK: media

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been reinstalling loudspeakers in areas near the border with the Republic of Korea (ROK), multiple local media reported Monday.

An unnamed ROK's military source was quoted as saying that the DPRK has been setting up loudspeakers along the inter-Korean frontline areas since Sunday afternoon.

The propaganda loudspeakers had been dismantled after ROK's President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un agreed upon the dismantlement in their first summit in April 2018 at the border village of Panmunjom.

The DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency reported earlier in the day that the country will soon distribute 12 million leaflets to ROK to "make them pay dearly for their crime."

"As of June 22, various equipment and means of distributing leaflets, including over 3,000 balloons of various types capable of scattering leaflets deep inside ROK, have been prepared," the report said.

Pyongyang has recently cut off all communication lines with Seoul and blown up the inter-Korean joint liaison office building near the border with ROK in protest against the dispersion of anti-DPRK leaflets across the border by defectors in the South.

The ROK's unification ministry said in a statement that it is very sorry for the DPRK to announce its plan to send large-scale anti-South Korea leaflets, calling on Pyongyang to immediately drop the plan.

The ministry said such acts are in a clear violation of inter-Korean agreements that worsens wrong practices rather than resolve them, noting that such acts will be of no help to settle peace on the Korean Peninsula and develop inter-Korean relations.

It noted that the ROK's government has thoroughly clamped down on the scattering of anti-DPRK leaflets in border areas, calling for the DPRK to stop any act that aggravates the situation.