SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea on Tuesday destroyed a section of the inter-Korean highway that is no longer in use after the rivals exchanged destruction threats amid growing hostility over North Korea‘s claims that South Korea had flown a drone. South Korea announced that it had blown up the northern part. Beyond its capital.
The road destruction is a sign of North Korea’s growing distaste for South Korea’s conservative government, and Kim Jong Un, the leader of the Workers’ Party of Korea, has announced his goal of severing ties with South Korea and achieving a peaceful reunification of North Korea. vows to renounce.
Observers say it remains unlikely that Mr. Kim will launch a pre-emptive, large-scale attack on South Korea. This is because doing so would surely invite large-scale retaliation by the superior South Korean and US forces, posing a threat to the Kim family’s survival.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also announced that South Korean troops opened fire within the southern border area in response to the explosion. The statement did not provide details about the shooting. It may have been an attempt to avoid cross-border shelling by North Korea. It is currently unclear whether North Korea has responded in any way.
South Korea’s military said it was working with the United States to strengthen its readiness and surveillance posture.
Footage provided by South Korea’s military shows an explosion on a road near the border town of Kaesong, sending plumes of white and gray smoke into the air, and North Korea dispatching trucks and excavators to remove debris. was. Another video showed smoke coming from a coastal road near South Korea’s eastern border.
North Korea has a history of staging choreographed events that destroy its facilities as a political message.
In 2020, North Korea bombed a vacant South Korean-built liaison office building just north of the border in retaliation for South Korean civilian leaflet-spreading operations. In 2018, North Korea destroyed a tunnel at its nuclear test site as it began nuclear diplomacy with the United States. In 2008, North Korea blew up a cooling tower at a major nuclear facility when initial disarmament assistance negotiations with the United States and other countries hit a snag. alive.
The road destruction follows Kim Jong Un’s January order to formally designate South Korea as the “immutable main enemy” and define North Korea’s sovereign territory, eliminating the goal of peaceful Korean reunification. It will be in line. Kim’s order surprised many outside North Korea watchers because it appeared to shatter his predecessor’s long-held dream of reunifying the peninsula on North Korea’s terms.
Experts say Kim is likely aiming to weaken South Korea’s voice in regional nuclear conflicts and seek direct deals with the United States. It is also likely that Kim wants to weaken South Korea’s cultural influence and strengthen his control domestically.
North Korea has accused South Korea three times this month of infiltrating drones and distributing propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang, and has threatened to respond with force if the same happens again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it flew the drone, but has warned that North Korea faces the end of its regime if the safety of South Koreans is threatened.
North Korea has put front-line artillery and other ground forces on standby to launch attacks on South Korea if South Korean drones are spotted over North Korea again. North Korea’s Ministry of Defense said that a powerful North Korean attack “could reduce the entire South Korean territory to a pile of ash.”
North Korean state media reported early Tuesday that Kim Jong Un had convened a meeting with top military and security officials the day before. During the meeting, Kim described South Korea’s alleged drone flight as a “serious provocation of the enemy” and called for unspecified measures related to “immediate military action” and the operation of “war deterrence” to protect the country’s sovereignty. North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, which presented the mission, reported.
During the previous period of detente in the 2000s, the two Koreas reconnected two road lines and two railway lines across a heavily fortified border. But since then, those operations have been halted one after another as South Korea squabbles over North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues.
Last week, North Korea announced it would permanently close its border with South Korea and create a front-line defense system to deal with “confrontation hysteria” between South Korean and U.S. militaries. South Korean officials said North Korea had already added anti-tank barriers and laid land mines along the border since early this year. North Korea also said it had planted landmines along part of the North-South Road, removed streetlights and removed railroad ties on the north side of the railway.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen sharply in recent years, with North Korea conducting provocative missile tests and South Korea and the United States expanding military exercises.
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