The choreographed demolition of these roads underscores North Korea’s growing anger at South Korea’s conservative government. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to cut ties with South Korea and abandon the goal of achieving a peaceful unification of Korea.
Observers say Mr. Kim is unlikely to launch a large-scale preemptive attack on South Korea due to fears that an almost certain massive response from superior U.S. and South Korean forces threatens Pyongyang’s survival.
In response to the explosions, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the South Korean military fired into southern sections of the border to strengthen its preparedness and surveillance posture. This action may have been an attempt to avoid North Korea’s cross-border fire.
A television screen announces that North Korea blew up parts of the northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Station, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press)
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea, condemned the North’s detonations, calling them “highly abnormal” and “regressive” measures that violate inter-Korean agreements.
In a video provided by the South Korean military, a cloud of smoke could be seen emerging from the explosion on a road near the western border town of Kaesong. North Korean trucks could also be seen cleaning up debris.
North Korea has a history of staging the choreographed destruction of facilities on its own soil as a political message.
In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty liaison office building built by South Korea just north of the border in retaliation for leafleting campaigns by South Korean civilians. In 2018, it demolished tunnels at its nuclear test site at the start of nuclear diplomacy with the United States.
The destruction of the roads, built mainly with South Korean money, would be in line with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s order last January to abandon the goal of peaceful unification of the Korea and officially designate South Korea as the country’s “main enemy”.
The order surprised many observers outside North Korea because it appeared to break with his predecessors’ long-held dreams of peacefully unifying the Korean Peninsula on the North’s terms.
Experts say Mr. Kim is likely seeking to diminish South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and seek direct negotiations with the United States. Mr. Kim may also hope to diminish South Korean cultural influence and strengthen his family’s dynastic rule in the country.
North Korea has accused South Korea of infiltrating drones to drop propaganda leaflets on Pyongyang three times this month and has threatened to respond with force if it happens again. South Korea declined to confirm whether it had sent drones, but warned that North Korea would face the end of its rule if the safety of South Korean citizens was threatened.
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