South Korea has condemned North Korea after it destroyed roads linking the countries on Tuesday, in another blow to bilateral ties on the increasingly tense peninsula.
The South Korean unification ministry, which overseas inter-Korean relations, described the North’s decision to blow up roads on its side of the countries’ heavily armed border as “abnormal” and a violation of bilateral agreements designed to lower tensions.
The South’s joint chiefs of staff said its military had fired “retaliatory” warning shots near the border after the North blew up sections of road that, while not in use, are seen as symbolic of efforts to improve ties and, eventually, reunite the peninsula.
“North Korean has detonated parts of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads north of the military demarcation line,” the JCS said, adding that the South had boosted its military readiness in response.
It did not provide details of the warning shots and it was not immediately known if North Korea had responded.
The North has laid fresh mines, erected anti-tank barriers and deployed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads along the border since its leader, Kim Jong-un, declared the South his country’s “principal enemy” earlier this year.
Last week Pyongyang said it would permanently seal its southern border in response to joint military exercises between South Korea and the US and the recent arrival in the South of a nuclear-powered US submarine.
On Monday, the North said it was preparing to blow up the roads, days after it accused Seoul of using drones to scatter propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang in what it called a political and military provocation that could lead to war.
Kim convened a security meeting to direct a plan of “immediate military action” in response, state media reported on Tuesday, while his influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, said the regime had “clear proof” that the South’s military was behind the reported drone incursions.
Using typically florid language, she said: “If sovereignty of a nuclear weapons state … by mongrels tamed by Yankees, the master of those dogs should be held accountable for this,” according to the KCNA state news agency.
The two Koreas are connected by roads and railway lines that were built with South Korean loans worth $133m, the South’s Yonhap news agency said.
The roads and railways have been closed for years, but destroying them sent a clear message that Kim Jong-un did not wish to negotiate with the South, experts said.
Destroying physical connections between North and South would be in line with Kim’s order in January to ditch the goal of a peaceful Korean unification, in a break with his predecessors’ long-held dream of creating a united peninsula in the image of North Korea.
“This is a practical military measure related to the hostile dual-state system that North Korea has frequently mentioned,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
The North may be looking to erect more physical barriers along the border, Yang said, adding that the detonations could be “preparatory work for its construction of those walls”.
Seoul’s military initially denied sending drones north but has subsequently declined to comment, even as Pyongyang has blamed them directly, warning it would consider it “a declaration of war” if another drone was detected.
Activist groups have long sent propaganda northwards, typically by balloon, and enthusiasts are also known to have flown small, hard-to-detect drones into the North.
At Kim’s meeting on Monday, officials heard a report on the “enemy’s serious provocation”, KCNA said, adding that Kim had “expressed a tough political and military stand”.
In 2022, five North Korean drones crossed into the South, the first such incident in five years, prompting the South Korean military to fire warning shots and deploy fighter jets. The jets failed to shoot down any of the drones.
In July, Seoul said it would deploy drone-melting lasers this year, saying the South’s ability to respond to provocations would be “significantly enhanced”.
The new laser weapons – called the “StarWars Project” by the South – shoot an invisible, silent beam that costs just 2,000 won ($1.45) a use, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.
After Kim’s meeting in Pyongyang, “attention is turning to whether North Korea will respond by sending drones into the South or take strong action if drones infiltrate its territory again”, said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.
“North Korea is likely to engage in strong provocations along the border if there is a recurrence of drone infiltrations.”
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report
