SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
North Korea building roads, walls inside Demilitarized Zone: Yonhap
Seoul, June 15 (AFP) Jun 15, 2024
North Korea's military has been building roads and walls inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates it from the South, the Yonhap news agency reported Saturday.

The construction activities are taking place north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that runs through the middle of the DMZ, the South Korean agency said, citing an unnamed military source.

The report follows an incident last week when South Korean forces fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the MDL.

South Korean authorities said it was likely accidental, and Yonhap quoted a military spokesman as saying some of the North Koreans were carrying work tools.

"Recently, the North Korean military has been erecting walls, digging the ground and constructing roads in some areas between the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the Northern Limit Line in the DMZ," the military source said, according to Yonhap on Saturday.

It was not clear what they were building, the source told Yonhap.

When asked about the report, the South Korean military said in a statement that it was "closely tracking and monitoring the activities of the North Korean military", and that "further analysis is required".

It said it could not share the South Korean response to these actions "to ensure the safety of the personnel proceeding with an operation", without offering further details.

South Korea's spy agency told AFP this week that it had detected signs that North Korea was demolishing sections of a railway line connecting the two countries.

That followed an escalation in the propaganda war between the two Koreas.

North Korea sent more than a thousand balloons carrying trash into the South, describing them as retaliation for the propaganda balloons sent the other way by anti-Pyongyang activists.

Then, South Korea resumed blasting K-pop songs and news broadcasts at the North, using loudspeakers installed at the border.

The resumption of the loudspeaker campaign prompted Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to threaten an unspecified "new countermeasure".

North Korea strictly controls the flow of information inside its borders, and is extremely sensitive about its people gaining access to South Korean content, especially pop culture.

It has previously threatened artillery strikes against the South Korean loudspeakers -- a psychological warfare tactic that dates back to the 1950-53 Korean War.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
PLD Space selected as leading contender for ESA sovereign launch initiative
UK thermal satellite firm wins ESA contract to deliver real time climate and security insights
UK opens competitive bid for GBP 75 million orbital cleanup mission

24/7 Energy News Coverage
China speeds up renewables building spree: report
French giant EDF will take 12.5 pecent stake in new UK nuclear plant
Major US teachers union teams up with AI giants

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
BlackSky expands Gen-3 access to bolster Ukraine-focused intelligence operations
Maxar secures $205 million in multi-year deals to boost space capabilities across MEA
K2 Space validates satellite systems in orbit and fires record-breaking thruster

24/7 News Coverage
The long slow death of Norway's wild salmon
Beijing decries 'discriminatory' ban on Chinese purchases of US farmland
China's 'new farmers' learn to livestream in rural revitalisation



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.