North Korea’s military has announced it will sever road and railway access to South Korea from today as it seeks to “completely separate” the two countries.
The “self-defensive measure” comes amid a worsening of the two nations’ already dire relations. Wednesday’s announcement the heavily militarised border separating North and South since the 1950s will be further fortified.
Kim Jong-un’s regime has been adding additional landmines and barriers and as well as creating wasteland next to the demarcation line for months, The Telegraph reports.
The beefing up of defences came as Pyongyang launched hundreds of balloons carrying “filthy waste and trash” over the demilitarised zone (DMZ) into South Korea, according to South Korea’s military, with residents warned to stay away from the packages.
The Korean People’s Army (KPA) said the move to sever road and rail links was in response to war exercises held in South Korea and the frequent presence of US nuclear assets in the region, BBC News reports.
In a report published by state media outlet KCNA, the KPA said: “The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security.”
The announcement is seen as largely symbolic, as roads and railways between the North and South are seldom used, and over the past year have been incrementally dismantled by Pyongyang, according to BBC News.
It comes after Kim Jong-un threatened to fire nuclear weapons “without hesitation” if any enemy countries tried to encroach on North Korea’s territory.
Speaking at the Kim Jong-un University of National Defence on Monday, he threatened that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack capabilities against its enemies” if they attempt to use armed forces against the hermit state.
“The use of nuclear weapons is not ruled out in this case,” the despot added.
At the start of last year, Kim announced he was no longer striving towards reunification with the South, prompting fears that open conflict between the two nations, which ended in 1953, could resume.
Addressing a meeting of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) in January, the authoritarian leader said: “I think it is necessary to revise some contents of the Constitution of the DPRK.
“In my view, it is necessary to delete such expressions in the constitution as ‘northern half’ and ‘independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity’,” he said, and suggested there should be revisions to the constitution “at the next session”, BBC News reports.
North Korea’s deepening ties with Russia have caused alarm among Western powers. Kim sent Russian leader Vladimir Putin a message to celebrate his 72nd birthday this week, describing the Kremlin warlord as his “closest comrade” and said the bonds between their two countries are “invincible and eternal.”
Both leaders have pledged to strengthen their military cooperation and come to each other’s aid in the event of an “aggression”.
