South Korea’s military has stated that North Korea has blown up the northern sections of disused roads that connect it to the South. Some parts of the road north of the military demarcation line dividing the two countries were blown up at about midday (03:00 GMT), the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message sent to media on Tuesday.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated after North Korea accused its neighbor of sending drones with propaganda leaflets over the capital, Pyongyang.
Videos released by South Korea’s military later showed North Korean soldiers in military uniforms setting up what appeared to be cameras on tripods ahead of a huge explosion. Another video, allegedly from after the blasts, depicted excavators digging, while North Koreans in military gear worked nearby.
While the destruction of the travel routes makes little difference since the two Koreas remain divided by one of the world’s most heavily-fortified borders, analysts view this as a dramatic escalation of the tensions between North and South Korea, also suggesting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is no longer willing to negotiate with the South.
“This is a practical military measure related to the hostile dual-state system that North Korea has frequently mentioned,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told the AFP news agency.
The explosions occurred one day after Kim convened a meeting with his top military brass to address the drone situation.
