North Korea blew up decommissioned roads linking it to the South and Seoul responded with border firing

South Korea’s military says it has fired “warning shots” near its fortified border with the North after Pyongyang blew up sections of symbolic highways linking the two countries. Around noon (local time), sections of a road north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) dividing the countries were blown up, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message to the media.

In response, Seoul’s military launched a “counter-attack” in areas south of the MDL, he later said.

Since North Korean President Kim Jong-un declared the South his country’s “main enemy” earlier this year, the North has laid new mines along the already heavily fortified border, erected anti-tank barriers and deployed nuclear weapons. Deployed missiles capable of carrying weapons.

Last week, Pyongyang said it would permanently seal its southern border in response to war drills and visits to US nuclear facilities in South Korea, and on Monday Seoul warned that Pyongyang was preparing to blow up roads. Is.

North Korea also accused Seoul of using drones to drop anti-government propaganda leaflets on the capital Pyongyang and Kim called a security meeting to plan “immediate military action” in response, state media reported on Tuesday.

According to experts, the roads and railways connecting the two countries have long been cut, but destroying them sends a clear message that Kim is not willing to negotiate with the South.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP the North may try to erect more physical barriers along the border, adding that the explosions could be “preparatory work for building those walls.” ,

Seoul’s military initially denied sending the drones to the North, but later declined to comment, even as Pyongyang has directly blamed them, warning that if it sent another drone If detected, she would consider it a “declaration of war”.

Activist groups have long sent propaganda to the North, usually via balloons, and some have even been known to fly small, difficult-to-detect drones.

At Kim’s meeting on Monday, North Korean leaders heard a report on “serious enemy provocations,” KCNA said, adding that Kim had “expressed a tough political and military stance.”

In 2022, five North Korean drones crossed into the South, the first such incident in five years, to which the South Korean military responded with gunfire and deployment of combat aircraft. The aircraft failed to shoot down any drone.

In July, Seoul announced it would deploy lasers to shoot down drones this year, and said the South’s ability to respond to provocations would be “much stronger.”

New laser weapons – called star wars project In the South – Fire an invisible, silent beam that costs only 2,000 won ($1.45) per use, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest in years, and the North’s military announced last week that it would close the southern border by “completely cutting off” roads and railways linking the South and building “strong defense structures.” will be permanently closed.”

After Kim’s meeting in Pyongyang, “the focus is on whether North Korea will respond by sending drones to the South or take stronger action if drones intrude into its territory again,” said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.

“If the drone incursions are repeated, North Korea may make gestures at the border,” Cheong told AFP.