North Korea declared on Wednesday that will permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defensive structures to address the “confrontational hysteria” of South Korean and US forces, while not announcing the expected constitutional revision to formally designate South Korea as its main enemy and codify new national borders.
Although these measures are likely to be a tactic of pressureit is not clear how they will affect ties with South Korea, since cross-border travel and exchanges have been paralyzed for years.
The North Korean military declared that it will “completely cut off roads and railways” connected to South Korea and “will fortify the relevant areas on our side with strong defense structures” according to the North Korean Central News Agency.
The North Korean military leadership described its steps as “self-defense measure to inhibit war and defend security” from North Korea. He said that “hostile forces are increasingly reckless in their confrontational hysteria.” He cited what he called various war exercises in South Korea, the deployment of American strategic assets and the harsh rhetoric of his rivals.
South Korea’s military declared later Wednesday that it will not tolerate any attempt by North Korea to change the status quo. South Korea “will punish forcefulness” to North Korea if it launches provocations. A South Korean military statement stated that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs have threatened peace on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean officials earlier said North Korea had already been adding anti-tank barriers and reinforcing roads on its side of the border since April, in a likely attempt to bolster its frontline security posture and prevent its soldiers and citizens from defecting to Korea. south. In a report to Parliament on Tuesday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said North Korea has been removing ties on the northern side of cross-border railways and nearby lamps and planting mines along the border.
Earlier Wednesday, KCNA said the Supreme People’s Assembly met for two days this week to change the legal ages for North Koreans to work and participate in elections. But he did not say whether the meeting discussed leader Kim Jong Un’s order in January rewrite the constitution to eliminate the goal of peaceful Korean unificationformally designate South Korea as the country’s “invariable main enemy” and define the North’s sovereign and territorial sphere.
At the center of foreign attention was whether North Korea makes new legal claims to waters currently controlled by South Korea off its western coast. In the last 25 years there have been three violent naval altercations and two deadly attacks attributed to North Korea on the poorly delimited western maritime border.
Some experts say North Korea may have delayed the constitutional review, but others speculate that it modified it without announcing it because of its sensitivity.
Kim’s order surprised many North Korea watchers because it was seen as a break with his predecessors’ long-cherished dreams of achieving a unified Korea on the North’s terms. Experts say it is likely that the North Korean leader intends reduce South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear conflict and deal directly with the United Statesas well as diminish South Korean cultural influence and reinforce its dominance in the country.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with North Korea continuing a series of provocative weapons tests y South Korea and the US expanding their military exercises. According to KCNA, North Korea on Tuesday tested a long-range artillery system that observers say poses a direct threat to the South Korean capital, Seoul, which is just an hour’s drive from the border.