Seoul, South Korea North Korea on Tuesday blew up northern parts of inter-Korean roads that are no longer in use, South Korea said, after the rivals exchanged threats of destruction amid rising hostility over North Korea’s claim that South Korea flew drones over its capital.
The demolition of the roads is an expression of North Korea’s growing resentment of South Korea’s conservative government, as leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to sever ties with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean unification .
Ahn Young-joon / AP
Observers say Kim is still unlikely to launch pre-emptive, large-scale attacks on South Korea as that would certainly lead to massive retaliation by superior South Korean and US military forces, threatening his survival.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea and the South Korean military fired warning shots south of the military line separating the two nations, adding that the shots caused no damage on Seoul’s side of the border. It was not immediately known whether that was the case North Korea responded.
The South Korean military has said it is strengthening its preparedness and surveillance posture, in coordination with the United States.
A video from the South Korean military showed a cloud of white and gray smoke billowing from the explosion on a road near the border city of Kaesong and North Korea sent trucks and excavators to clear the rubble. Another video showed smoke billowing from a coastal road near Korea’s eastern border.
Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Agence France-Presse that Pyongyang may also be planning to erect more physical barriers along the border and that the road blasts would be “preparatory work could be for the construction of those walls. “
North Korea has a history of staging choreographed events to destroy facilities on its territory as a political message.
In 2020, Pyonyang blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office just north of the border in retaliation for South Korean leafleting campaigns targeting civilians. In 2018, North Korea demolished tunnels at its nuclear test site at the start of nuclear diplomacy with the US. In 2008, North Korea blew up a cooling tower at its main nuclear complex as earlier disarmament negotiations for aid with the US and others were taking place. alive.
Destroying the roads would be in line with Kim’s January order to eliminate the goal of peaceful Korean unification, formally designating South Korea as the country’s “immutable principal enemy” and destroying the country’s sovereign, territorial sphere North to be defined. Kim’s order surprised many Pyongyang observers outside North Korea because it appeared to break with his predecessors’ long-held dreams of unifying the Korean Peninsula on the North’s terms.
Experts say Kim likely wants to reduce South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and seek direct ties with the US. They say Kim is also likely hoping to reduce South Korea’s cultural influence and strengthen his rule at home.
North Korea has accused South Korea three times this month of infiltrating drones to drop propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang and threatened to respond with force if it happened again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it has sent drones, but warned that North Korea would face the end of its regime if the safety of South Korean citizens were threatened.
North Korea has put frontline artillery and other military units on standby to launch attacks on South Korea if drones from South Korea are again found over North Korea. North Korea’s Defense Ministry said all of South Korea “could turn into piles of ash” after the North’s powerful attack.
North Korean state media reported earlier Tuesday that Kim had convened a meeting with his top military and security officials the day before. During the meeting, Kim described the alleged South Korean drone flights as a “serious provocation of the enemy” and explained unspecified tasks related to “immediate military action” and the operation of his “war deterrent” in defense of sovereignty of the country, the North Korean Central News Agency reports.
During the previous era of inter-Korean detente in the 2000s, the two Koreas reconnected two road routes and two rail lines across their heavily fortified border. But their operations were later suspended one by one as the Koreas feuded over North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues.
Last week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures to deal with “confrontational hysteria” from South Korean and US forces. South Korean officials said North Korea has added anti-tank barriers and laid mines along the border since earlier this year. They said North Korea has also planted mines and removed lamps along inter-Korean roads and severed connections on the northern side of the railways.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen sharply in recent years, with North Korea conducting a series of provocative missile tests and South Korea and the US expanding military exercises.
