Korean Demilitarized Zone loudspeakers

North Korea and South Korea—engaged in a low-level military conflict with each other since the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953—are separated at their border by the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), along which both countries have broadcast various sounds on loudspeakers aimed at the other side. A form of psychological warfare, this has been dubbed the “Korean Loudspeaker War”.

There have been three periods in which the broadcasts have occurred, each time initiated by South Korea; their aim has been to encourage North Koreans to gain a liking for South Korea, as well as to respond to North Korean aggression without physically escalating the conflict. South Korea's speakers play propaganda and music, while North Korea's play general noises such as sirens and drums.

The United States, allied with South Korea during the Korean War, used loudspeaker broadcasts as psychological warfare on North Korean soldiers from 1950 to 1953. In 1963, South Korea began using speakers at the DMZ, and North Korea did the same later on. They both agreed to stop their broadcasts in 2004. In 2015, after an incident in which two South Korean soldiers on the DMZ were injured by a North Korean land mine, both broadcasts resumed. They were paused after a 2018 agreement. In 2024, after North Korea sent balloons filled with trash and manure over the DMZ, the broadcasts again resumed, and South Korea halted theirs in 2025.