North Korea to Cut Off All Roads and Rail to South Korea

The North Korean military announced on Wednesday that it will sever all road and rail links to South Korea and construct more fortifications on the border, deepening the chasm between the two peninsular governments.

The South Korean military detected increased North Korean border activity in May, including street lights on the inter-Korea highways being torn down, and roads littered with landmines.

“Since late last year, the North has installed mines on all roads between the two Koreas once seen as symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation,” South Korea’s Yonhap News reported in May.

The DPRK (North Korea’s name for itself) has evidently decided to take erasing symbols of reconciliation and cooperation to the next level. The general staff of the North Korean military said roads and railroads would be demolished in response to “war exercises” held by the United States and South Korea.

The North Korean military statement referred to South Korea as its “primary hostile state and invariable principal enemy,” verbiage in line with dictator Kim Jong-un’s pronouncement in January that reconciliation with Seoul was no longer a goal of his regime.

The North Korean military claimed that destroying all road and rail links was necessary as a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security of the DPRK.”

The statement concluded by claiming a “telephone message” was sent to the U.S. military command in South Korea on Wednesday morning to “prevent any misjudgment and accidental conflict over the fortification project.”

The United Nations Command (UNC), which is headed by the U.S. military, confirmed that received a message on the telephone hotline from North Korea, but refused to “discuss the specific content of messages out of consideration for the integrity of the hotline.”

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Wednesday morning that it has not yet detected any construction activity by North Korean military forces.

“Our military will not overlook any action by North Korea attempting to unilaterally change the status quo, and we clearly warn that responsibility for all situations resulting from it lies with North Korea,” said JCS.

“In the event North Korea carries out a provocation, our military will overwhelmingly punish not only the source of the provocation but also the supporting and commanding forces based on a firm combined defense posture,” the JCS statement said.