Seoul, South Korea — In a symbolic show of anger, North Korea on Tuesday blew up northern parts of inter-Korean routes that are no longer in use, South Korea said, after the rivals exchanged threats of destruction amid growing animosity over North Korea’s claim that South Korea flew drones over its capital.
The road demolitions signal North Korea’s growing hatred of South Korea’s conservative government, with its leader Kim Jong Un pledging to cut ties with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful unification of Korea.
Ahn Young-joon / AP
Observers say Kim is still unlikely to launch large-scale pre-emptive attacks against South Korea, as this would certainly lead to massive retaliation from the superior force between South Korea and the United States, which would constitute a threat to its survival.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff and the South Korean military fired warning shots south of the military line separating the two countries, adding that the shots caused no damage on the Seoul side of the border. It was not immediately known whether North Korea replied.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea, separately condemned the North’s detonations, calling them a “highly abnormal” and “regressive” move that violates previous inter-Korean agreements.
South Korea’s military said it was strengthening its preparedness capacity and surveillance posture in coordination with the United States.
Video provided by the South Korean military shows a cloud of white and gray smoke emerging from the explosion on a road near the border town of Kaesong and North Korea is sending trucks and excavators to clear the debris. Another video showed smoke coming 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 intend to erect more physical barriers along the border and that road detonations could constitute “preparatory work for the construction of these walls”. “
North Korea has a history of staging choreographed events to destroy facilities on its soil as a political message.
In 2020, Pyonyang blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office building just north of the border in retaliation for South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2018, North Korea demolished the tunnels of its nuclear test site at the start of its nuclear diplomacy with the United States. In 2008, the North blew up a cooling tower at its main nuclear complex during earlier disarmament-for-aid negotiations with the United States and others. alive.
The destruction of the roads would be in line with Kim’s order in January to eliminate the goal of peaceful unification of Korea, to officially designate South Korea as the country’s “invariable principal enemy” and to define the sovereign territorial sphere of the North. Kim’s order stunned many Pyongyang watchers outside North Korea because it appeared to break with his predecessors’ dreams of unifying the Korean Peninsula on the North’s terms.
Experts say Kim likely aims to diminish South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear conflict and seek direct relations with the United States. They say Kim likely also hopes to diminish South Korea’s cultural influence and strengthen his domestic power.
North Korea has accused South Korea of infiltrating drones to drop propaganda leaflets on Pyongyang three times this month and has threatened to respond with force if it happens again.
Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, said on Tuesday that Pyongyang had obtained “clear evidence” that Seoul was behind the drone incursions, Reuters news agency reported citing state media KCNA.
South Korea declined to confirm whether it had sent drones, but warned that North Korea would risk the end of its regime if the safety of South Korean citizens was threatened.
North Korea has put front-line artillery and other military units on standby to launch strikes on South Korea, if South Korean drones are again discovered over North Korea. North Korea’s Defense Ministry said the whole of South Korea “could turn into piles of ashes” following the North’s powerful attack.
North Korean state media reported earlier Tuesday that Kim had called 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 outlined unspecified tasks related to “immediate military action” and the operation of his “deterrence of war” to defend the sovereignty of the country, the North Korean central area. » said the news agency.
During the previous period of inter-Korean détente in the 2000s, the two Koreas reconnected two roads and two railways across their heavily fortified border. But their operations were then suspended one by one as the Koreas argued over North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues.
Last week, North Korea announced it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures to deal with the “conflict hysteria” of South Korean and US forces. South Korean officials have said North Korea has added anti-tank barriers and laid mines along the border since early this year. They said North Korea also laid mines and removed lamps along its stretches of inter-Korean roads, as well as sleepers on the north side of railway tracks.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen sharply in recent years, with North Korea carrying out a series of provocative missile tests and South Korea and the United States expanding military exercises.
