The North Korean army destroyed with explosives on Tuesday, October 15, sections of roads formerly used for cross-border trade with South Korea, according to Seoul, a new episode in the rise in tensions between the two enemies. “The North blew up parts of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads north of the military demarcation line,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said, using the official name for the inter-Korean border. In response, South Korean forces Korean forces carried out “response fire” on their own territory, he added, without further details. The North Korean army confirmed on October 9 that it was going to “permanently” cut off the roads and highly symbolic railway lines connecting the two countries, and building “strong defensive structures” along the border. In practice, the border between the two Koreas is already completely closed. Since the end of the war in 1953, the two inter-Korean roads and two railway lines have only been reopened during brief periods of relaxation. As of June 2020, North Korea had already dynamited an Inter-Korean Liaison Office opened in 2018 , while relations between Seoul and Pyongyang experienced one of these ephemeral improvements, in Kaesong, a few kilometers north of the border. An “immediate military action” The destruction of these unused roads is a new illustration of the hardening of the policy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un towards South Korea, which he designated as “the main enemy” of his country. In January 2024, he also ordered the dissolution of all institutions responsible for relations with Seoul and plans to reunify Korea and have threatened to go to war for any violation of its territory “even by 0.001 millimeter”. Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated considerably since the coming to power in Seoul in 2022 by conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, a supporter of a firm policy towards the North and a strengthening of the military alliance with the United States and Japan. The three allies regularly conduct joint military exercises that Pyongyang views as dress rehearsals for an invasion of the North. According to North Korean state media, Kim Jong Un chaired a meeting of the country’s top military officials on Monday and outlined the lines of “immediate military action”. This meeting took place while the North Korean regime complains of several drone overflights which, according to it, have dropped propaganda leaflets on the capital filled with “inflammatory rumors and nonsense” and accuses Seoul of being responsible.Pyongyang warned on Sunday that one more drone would be considered “a declaration of war”.South Korean activist groupsSouth Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong -hyun, denied any involvement, before a clarification from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff which declared “not being able to confirm whether the North Korean allegations were true or not”. Local speculation points to groups activists from South Korea who are used to sending propaganda and dollars to the North, generally by balloon but also sometimes using small drones that are difficult to detect. Since May, North Korea has been sending , thousands of balloons laden with rubbish headed south, prompting Seoul to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border and suspend a 2018 deal aimed at preventing military skirmishes. At the end of 2022, five North Korean drones entered the South’s airspace, the first such incident in five years, paralyzing air traffic at Seoul International Airport. The South Korean army had launched fighter planes, which had failed to shoot down any drones. In July, Seoul announced the deployment by the end of the year of laser systems capable of melting drones in flight.
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