N. Korean leader suspends military action plans near inter-Korean border

북, 대남확성기 철거...대남 군사행동계획 전격 보류Just three days after North Korea started re-installing propaganda loudspeakers along the border,... the regime appears to be removing them again.According to a state media report, Kim Jong-un has canceled what had been announced as "military action" against South Korea.Our correspondent for North Korean affairs Hong Yoo has more.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a preliminary meeting of the Central Military Commission on Tuesday, decided to suspend the "military action plans" the regime had previously said it would take toward South Korea.On Wednesday, North Korea was observed removing most of the propaganda loudspeakers it had installed at the border near South Korea's Peace Observatories in Gangwon-do Province and Incheon.According to a South Korean military source, the North had only started reinstalling the loudspeakers on Sunday 30 of them in total.The speakers are used to blast out anti-South Korea propaganda.The two Koreas had removed all of their speakers after they agreed through the Panmunjeom Declaration in 2018 that they would stop all hostile actions,... which included anti-state broadcasts and the dropping of propaganda leaflets.The North had started to reinstall them, though, in retaliation for the anti-Pyeongyang leaflets being sent over the border from the South by North Korean defectors.Seoul's unification ministry says it's closely monitoring and analyzing North Korea's recent movements.It also re-emphasized that the South Korean government is firm that the 2018 inter-Korean agreement must be adhered to.The sudden decision by North Korea to remove the loudspeakers contrasts with what its military warned last Tuesday that its next steps would be in response to the sending of anti-Pyeongyang leaflets.Those steps included positioning troops in the areas around Mount Geumgang and the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, restoring guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone, resuming all kinds of regular military exercises at the border and sending anti-South Korea leaflets across the DMZ.Hong Yoo, Arirang News.