Army ready to turn on loudspeakers near border with North Korea after suspension of 2018 inter-Korean agreement

South Korea's military said Tuesday it remains ready to immediately operate mobile loudspeakers near the border with North Korea, as Seoul took steps to completely suspend the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement .

Earlier in the day, the Cabinet approved the suspension of the Comprehensive Military Agreement in response to the North's waste balloon campaign and jamming of GPS signals in recent days.

The motion will be sent to President Yoon Suk Yeol for signature, and the suspension will allow South Korea to resume large-scale military training near the border and restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts to the North.

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Sung-jun said various measures could be taken after the suspension, noting that the military had used fixed and mobile loudspeakers on the front lines.

“Fixed speakers need to be connected to the mains and can take hours or even days to install,” Lee told a regular press briefing. “Operations on mobile loudspeakers can be carried out immediately.”

The loudspeakers criticized Kim Jong-un's regime's human rights abuses, news and K-pop songs, sparking angry reactions from Pyongyang.

A government source said there appear to be no plans to immediately install stationary equipment because such activities could increase military tensions, noting that the military will likely use mobile equipment first if such emissions resume.

At the same time, Lee declined to give more details on what steps the military might take after the deal is suspended, but noted that they would depend on North Korea's actions.

“There are things we can do immediately, and we could make them public, and a lot of these things can be seen as largely dependent on North Korea,” he said.

The 2018 agreement included the creation of buffer zones around the border to suspend large-scale military exercises, as well as a ban on “hostile” acts between the two Koreas, which limited loudspeaker broadcasts. (Yonhap)