North Korea mobilises military to ‘firing positions’ as Kim Jong-un loss of life rumours linger

North Korea has warned South Korean troops will be ‘mercilessly eliminated’ if the country is provoked as the nation issues a chilling threat and moves troops to ‘firing positions’

North Korea has announced the country is mobilising troops to take up “firing positions” as rumours around Kim Jong-un’s poor health lingers. Kim Yo Jong, the influential sibling of the North Korean leader, visited frontline areas on Wednesday where soldiers are bolstering the heavily fortified border, according to Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In a bold statement to the nation Kim Yo Jong said: “Our military leadership underlined the need to make those rogues aware that our new firepower units have taken their firing positions,” state media reports.

She cautioned that troops would “mercilessly eliminate” South Korean forces if warning fire resulted in harm to North Korean territory or personnel. She said that Kim Jongun had “issued an order to fortify the border with an enemy state to be eternally impregnable.”

On Thursday, Kim Yo Jong also declared that North Korea would place anti-South Korea loudspeakers that will be ready to restart along the entire border with South Korea within days. This announcement came just 24 hours after she had stated the loudspeakers would be in operation along the border at some point this month.

Her appearance at fortification sites alongside senior military officials on Wednesday came amid swirling rumours that her brother had passed away. On Tuesday state media appeared to quash these claims by releasing photographs of the 42-year-old attending a public event with his daughter by his side, reports the Express.

The photographs emerged just hours after unverified claims swept across the internet alleging that the leader had fallen into a coma and died after being rushed to Beijing for emergency medical treatment. Wanjun Xie, a US-based Chinese dissident with ties to the China Democracy Party, took to X on Sunday to assert that the North Korean leader had passed away.

Xie claimed that a team of medical experts from Beijing’s Peking Union Medical College Hospital had been sent to North Korea on Saturday to treat Kim Jong-un following a severe haemorrhage. He has previously circulated unverified claims, including allegations that Chinese President Xi Jinping had died and been substituted with a body double.

Both North and South Korea have long deployed giant loudspeakers along their heavily fortified border as tools of psychological warfare.

South Korea has blasted K-pop music, news bulletins and messages condemning Pyongyang. North Korea has retaliated with anti-South Korean propaganda and deeply unsettling sounds, including howling wolves, metallic screeches and eerie wails. These broadcasts have been switched on and off during periods of heightened tension and diplomatic engagement.

Relations between North and South Korea have deteriorated considerably in recent years since Pyongyang began reinforcing the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with barbed-wire fencing, landmines, anti-tank barriers and military roads. This latest flare-up comes after an explosion on 21 September left three South Korean soldiers wounded while they were carrying out a search operation inside the DMZ, the buffer zone dividing the two nations.

A joint inquiry conducted by South Korea’s military and the United Nations Command subsequently determined that the blast had been triggered by North Korean landmines deliberately laid south of the Military Demarcation Line. Pyongyang rejected any responsibility, with Kim Yo Jong accusing Seoul of fabricating the findings for “political and military provocation.”