North Korea Blows Up Roads Near South Korean Border, As Pyongyang Warns It Will 'Completely Cut Off' Territory

North Korea has recently destroyed parts of two major roads connected to the border with the South, as Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un ‘s rhetoric regarding South Korea grows increasingly aggressive.

Knewz.com has learned that the explosion and obliteration of the roads came after Pyongyang threatened to “completely” wipe out all territorial ties with South Korea.

The South Korean military has released video clips showing explosions along the roads on the northern side of the military demarcation line.

It has been reported that the armed forces of North Korea will be demolishing the remaining roads and railways connecting to the South, thus cutting off all access across the border.

The said plans were announced by the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army in a notice shared by the North Korean state news agency KCNA .

“The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK [the official name of North Korea] to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security,” the notice read.

The General Staff further mentioned that the plans to “completely cut off” its territory from the South was a response to “ war exercises” in South Korea and “visits by what it claims were US strategic nuclear assets in the region,” according to reports.

It has been reported that the destruction of roads along the border came after North Korea accused the South of flying “propaganda-filled” drones over the capital of Pyongyang—an incident for which the North has vowed “retaliation.”

It is worth noting that North Korea has been sending trash-filled balloons across the border into the South for several months amidst rising hostility between the neighboring nations.

According to reports, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un threatened the use of nuclear weapons if the South ever attacked the isolated nation. In response, Yoon Suk Yeol, the President of South Korea, warned that if the North used nuclear weapons on its neighbor it would “face the end of its regime.”

Reports further mentioned that the nation has seemingly intensified nuclear production efforts amidst deepened ties with Russia .

It is worth noting that North Korea has recently been fortifying its border defenses, with reports from the South Korean military mentioning that Pyongyang is laying landmines, building anti-tank traps, and removing railway infrastructure along the border.

It was reported that satellite images from June 2024 showed North Korea building sections of a wall around 0.6 miles from the eastern stretch of the border with South Korea.

BBC Verify analyzed the images and wrote that while the exact date of construction of the apparent wall is unknown, the structure was not visible in satellite images from 2023.

Dr. Uk Yang, a military and defense expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies told the outlet, “My personal assessment is that this is the first time they’ve ever built a barrier in the sense of separating places from each other.”

“Back in the 1990s, North Korea had set up the anti- tank walls to deter the advance of tanks in case war broke out. But recently, North Korea has been setting up walls 2-3m [around 10 feet] high, and they don’t look like the anti-tank walls.”

“The shape of the walls suggests that they are not just obstacles [for tanks], but are intended to divide an area,” Dr. Yang added.

North Korea has also cleared a stretch of land in the shape of a long access road, a feature that was not present in satellite images captured in November 2023, in the area of the DMZ – demilitarized zone – controlled by the North.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said in a statement that North Korea’s recent move to cut off its territory from the South could be part of Kim Jong-un’s plans to “shift blame for its economic failures and legitimize its costly buildup of missiles and nuclear weapons” by exaggerating foreign threats.

“Kim Jong Un wants domestic and international audiences to believe he is acting out of military strength, but he may actually be motivated by political weakness,” he said. “North Korea’s threats, both real and rhetorical, reflect the regime survival strategy of a hereditary dictatorship,” Prof. Easley said in the statement.

On the other hand, it has been reported that a United States aircraft carrier, amphibious assault ships, long-range bombers, and submarines have visited South Korea over the past few months—escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula even further.