North Korea installs mines on road within Demilitarized Zone

North Korea has installed land mines on an inter-Korean road within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, a South Korean military official said, the latest in a series of moves to shut down cross-border roads.

The military detected the North laying mines on the unpaved road inside the DMZ late last year near Arrowhead Hill in Cheorwon, 85 kilometers northeast of Seoul, according to the official, Yonhap reports.

The path was created under a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement to connect the South and the North for joint efforts to excavate remains of those killed near the hill during the 1950-53 Korean War.

When asked about the context behind the North's move, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) pointed out the North has taken steps to restore military measures halted under the 2018 agreement after scrapping it last November amid increasingly strained ties.

JCS spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun said in a regular briefing that the South's military is taking "necessary" measures, but ruled out installing mines on the roads as a proportionate step.

Since scrapping the accord designed to reduce military tensions, the North has installed mines on all roads between the two Koreas once seen as symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation.

In January, North Korean troops were spotted installing mines on two inter-Korean roads -- the Gyeongui road between the South's western border city of Paju and the North's Kaesong and the Donghae road along the east coast.

Last month, the military also detected the North removing dozens of streetlights along the two roads.

The North has also been spotted rebuilding guard posts within the DMZ that had been dismantled under the deal.

South Korea has taken steps to restore its guard posts that had also been destroyed, but Lee declined to elaborate, citing possible risks to troop safety.

Last December, North's leader Kim Jong-un called for scrapping a decadeslong policy of seeking unification with South Korea and defining their relations as those between "two states hostile to each other."

In January, Kim gave instructions for "strict" measures to block all the channels of inter-Korean communication along the border, such as cutting off the Gyeongui land route to an "irretrievable level."