Kim Jong Un scares with armed conflict
North Korea is preparing to blow up roads that criss-cross the heavily militarized border with South Korea in a bid to completely sever the link between the two countries. The South Korean military made the announcement Monday amid an escalating war of words. They emphasized that there is a possibility that the explosion will happen very soon.
The reason for the extreme action is that the North accuses the South of sending drones that scattered “huge numbers” of anti-government leaflets over the capital Pyongyang – a provocation that leader Kim Jong Un has declared as political and military. He said such actions could lead to armed conflict.
According to South Korea, North Korean soldiers wearing camouflage
worked on the roads from
the northern side of the border
Last week, North Korea announced it would cut all road and rail links with South Korea and fortify areas on its side of the border. On Monday, the sister of the North Korean leader, Kim Yo Jong, said it was “clear” that the South Korean military was to blame for the drone invasion. She added that Washington must also be held accountable. “If the sovereignty of a nation with nuclear weapons has been violated by mongrels domesticated by the Yankees, the master of these dogs must be held responsible,” she said.
Lee Sung-jun, a spokesman for the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to say whether military or civilians were flying the drones. He explained that the refusal was due to the fact that this was a tactic of the North to find an excuse for provocation.
Experts say that even if civilians sent the drones from the south across the border, it would be difficult to carry out this operation without the government’s permission. It is assumed that it is possible that the authorities have not been able to detect and block them.
On Sunday, North Korea’s Defense Ministry said the drones it said were detected over Pyongyang were of a type that required a special launch vehicle or runway – making it impossible for a civilian group to launch them.
Meanwhile, the government has warned of a “terrible catastrophe” if drones are spotted over its capital again. They said eight fully equipped artillery units were on standby at the border.
South Korea
seeks to strengthen
its defense against drones
since 2022, when five North Korean drones entered its airspace and flew over the capital Seoul for several hours, Lee Sung-jun said.
Relations between the two Koreas remain strained since their 1950-1953 war ended with an armistice agreement between the powers rather than a formal peace treaty. Their cross-border ties are remnants of periods of rapprochement, including a 2018 summit between the leaders when they declared there would be no more war and that a new era of peace had begun.
North Korea later reintroduced heavy weapons into the demilitarized zone’s border buffer and reinstated security posts after the countries declared a 2018 military agreement aimed at easing tensions was no longer valid.