North Korea: Roads Connecting to South Korea Destroyed

No one could travel on those roads that connect North and South Korea and run across the border at the 48th parallel. But the October 15, 2024, blasts north of the border are a symbolic gesture describing how relations between North and South Korea have steadily deteriorated. Seoul responded with a few warning shots.

In 2018, Kim Jong Un met with Donald Trump several times and planted a tree with then-President of South Korea Moon Jae-in at the demilitarized zone as a sign of peace. Six years and it feels like it was a century ago. In the meantime, Kim should have (the North never officially did so) destroyed Pyongyang’s reunification arch and removed from the constitution the existing call for a future peaceful unification of the two Koreas.

“It is regrettable that North Korea repeatedly demonstrates such regressive behavior,” explained ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam, according to Reuters, calling the gesture “extremely abnormal.”

The Korea Herald reports that the damage was only superficial, confirming that the gesture is essentially symbolic. “It appears that North Korea is trying to achieve various effects, such as signaling to the United States or the UN command to mediate the ongoing escalation with South Korea,” explained a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), leaders of the South Korean Army.

Tensions rose further last week when the North accused Seoul of launching a drone that scattered numerous leaflets against Kim Jong-un. Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s influential sister, warned that further drone launches “will be dearly paid for.”

China intervened in the matter, commenting by way of a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman: “Tensions on the peninsula are not in the common interests of all sides, and the priority is to prevent further escalation of the stand-off,” emphasizing that Beijing’s position is unchanged and is to “maintain peace and stability on the peninsula and promote a political solution to the problem.”