Seoul, South Korea – North Korea With heavily militarized border crossings preparing to blow up road South Korea, Seoul said on Monday, amid an escalating war of words after the North accused its rival of sending drones over its capital, Pyongyang.
North Korean soldiers were working undercover on roads near the border on the west and east coasts, possibly preparing to blow up the roads on Monday morning, a South Korean military spokesman said.
North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of sending drones to spread “a large number of anti-North leaflets” over Pyongyang, which it called a political and military provocation that could lead to armed conflict.
Lee Sung-joon, spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to answer questions Monday about whether the drone was flown by South Korean military personnel or civilians.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, made another inflammatory statement targeting South Korea and the United States Kim Jong UnMonday said South Korea's military was “clearly” responsible for the drone intrusion and that Washington must also be held accountable.
“If the sovereignty of a nuclear-armed state is violated by the Yankee-adopted Mongols, the owner of these dogs must be held responsible,” he said, referring to Seoul and Washington, via state news agency KCNA.
North Korea's military said last week it would entirely cut roads and railways and strengthen areas connected to South Korea and along the border, KCNA reported.
North Korea warned of a “terrible disaster” over the weekend after a South Korean drone was seen flying over Pyongyang. On Sunday, it said it had put eight fully armed artillery units on standby to fire along the border.
South Korea's military said its refusal to answer questions about the drones was because its handling of what the North claimed would amount to a provocative tactic of creating pretexts by Pyongyang.
South Korea has been trying to strengthen its anti-drone defenses since 2022, Lee said, when five North Korean drones entered its airspace and flew over the capital, Seoul, for several hours.
Civilians would have no problem getting a drone with a range of about 300 kilometers round-trip from the South to Pyongyang, with a payload as light as a leaflet, said Lee Kyung-Hyung, an expert in military drone operations at Jungwon University. .
Other experts say that even if civilians sent such drones across the border from the south, it would be difficult to do so without government permission or if authorities were unable to detect and block them.
On Sunday, North Korea's Defense Ministry said the drones, which were detected over Pyongyang over three days earlier this month, were the type that required a special launcher or runway and would be impossible for a civilian group to leave.
The two Koreas are still technically at war, not in a peace treaty, after the 1950-53 war ended in an armistice.
The cross-border links are remnants of a period of reconciliation between the countries, including a summit between leaders in 2018, when they declared that there would be no more war and that a new era of peace had begun.
North Korea has reintroduced heavy weapons and restored guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone border area, after declaring that a 2018 military agreement aimed at reducing tensions is no longer valid.
