North Korea has blown up the northern sections of disused roads that connect it to South Korea, according to South Korea\u2019s military. 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. The military fired warning shots south of the demarcation line, it said. Seoul had warned on Monday that Pyongyang was preparing to blow up the roads. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen since North Korea accused its neighbour of sending drones carrying propaganda leaflets over the country\u2019s capital Pyongyang. One showed North Korean soldiers in military uniforms setting up what appeared to be cameras on tripods ahead of a huge explosion, which blew up sections of the Gyeongui road and kicked up billowing clouds of smoke and dust. More footage, apparently from after the blasts, showed excavators digging, while North Koreans in military uniforms worked nearby. There was also footage showing North Korea blowing up a section of the Donghae road, on the east coast. \u201cThis is a practical military measure related to the hostile dual-state system that North Korea has frequently mentioned,\u201d Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told the AFP news agency. The blasts came a day after Kim called a meeting with his top military and security officials to discuss the drone issue. During the meeting, Kim described the flights as the \u201cenemy\u2019s serious provocation\u201d and laid out unspecified tasks related to \u201cimmediate military action\u201d and the operation of his \u201cwar deterrent\u201d for defending the country\u2019s sovereignty, North Korean state media reported on Tuesday morning. North Korea earlier put frontline artillery and other army units on standby to launch attacks on South Korea, if its drones were found over North Korea again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned it would sternly punish North Korea if the safety of its citizens was threatened. Destroying the roads is in line with Kim Jong Un\u2019s push to cut off ties with South Korea, formally cement it as his country\u2019s principal enemy and abandon North Korea\u2019s decades-long objective to seek the peaceful unification of the two Koreas. In 2020, North Korea blew up the empty liaison office for the two Koreas, signalling the end of a period of detente. In November last year, Pyongyang said it would move more troops and military equipment to the border and would no longer be bound by a 2018 joint military agreement after Seoul suspended parts of the agreement in response to Pyongyang\u2019s launch of a military spy satellite. South Korean officials have said that North Korea began adding antitank barriers and laying mines along the border earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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