“A project will first be launched on October 9 to completely cut off roads and railways connected to South Korea and strengthen relevant areas on our side with strong defense structures,” the North Korean People’s Army General Staff reported. In an article published by the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)according to its acronym in English).
The North also explained that the fact that the Army permanently closes and blocks the border with South Korea, a “hostile state and the unchanging main enemy,” in the current context, is a self-defense measure to inhibit war and defend the security of the country.
Severe measures against military escalation
According to the regime, it has been decided to take “more resolute and severe measures” in response to the “serious military situation» on the Korean peninsula, referring to the military exercises that South Korea has been carrying out in areas near the border and the visit of strategic nuclear assets from the United States to the region.
The North Korean Army claimed to have sent a message by telephone to the United States Army, which was stationed in South Korea at the time, with the aim of preventing any misunderstanding or accidental conflict in relation to the “border fortification project.” .
North Korean provocations
The announcement comes amid ongoing high tensions on the Korean Peninsula. First, the North Korean regime has been sending balloons with garbage towards the South that have caused numerous damages and have become a danger for the South Korean population. Secondly, it has recently publicly revealed, for the first time, a uranium enrichment facility.
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The United States strategy on the conflict on the peninsula
Currently, the United States maintains stationed 28,000 soldiers in South Korea for the purpose to deter possible North Korean aggression, which in turn constitutes a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
On the other hand, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of South Korea reported that so far it had not detected any construction work by the North Korean Army near the border.
Furthermore, he conveyed in a statement that the South Korean Army will not overlook any action by North Korea that attempts to unilaterally change the “status quo,” and warned that responsibility for all resulting situations will clearly fall on North Korea.
In the event that Pyongyang carries out any provocation, the JCS assured that the South Korean military will overwhelmingly punish not only the source of the provocation, but also the support and command forces, based on a firm combined defense posture. .
Hostility in the connection between the two Koreas
The two Koreas are connected by road and railway tracks along the Gyeongui Line, which links the South Korean western border city of Paju with the North Korean city of Kaesong, and the Donghae Line, along the east coast.
Since North Korean State Affairs Committee Chairman Kim Jong-un defined the two Koreas as “states hostile to each other” late last year, Pyongyang has taken steps to eliminate routes that were once considered symbols of the inter-Korean exchange and cooperation, including the installation of minesin January, along Gyeongui and Donghae roads.
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