North Korea to cut off road, rail links to South Korea

North Korea announced it will take a “substantial military step” by fully severing its territory from South Korea, following months of heightened border fortifications.

This move, announced by the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), underscores the rapidly escalating military situation on the Korean Peninsula, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

In the statement, the KPA declared that all remaining roads and railways connecting North and South Korea would be blocked. The decision follows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s earlier abandonment of the country's longstanding policy of peaceful reunification with the South. Kim has since ramped up his rhetoric, referring to South Korea as the North’s “primary foe and invariable principal enemy.”

“The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security,” the KPA General Staff stated, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Since January, North Korea has reportedly fortified its border with land mines, anti-tank traps, and the removal of railway infrastructure, according to South Korea’s military. These defensive measures align with Kim's increasingly aggressive stance toward the South, following a series of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.

North Korea’s latest move comes as a reaction to the recent presence of US strategic assets in the region, including aircraft carriers, long-range bombers, and submarines, which have drawn strong rebukes from Pyongyang.

In response, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff called North Korea's decision "a desperate measure stemming from the insecurity of the failed Kim Jong Un regime" and warned that the move would only result in "harsher isolation" for the North.

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, suggested that North Korea may be aiming to formalize its severance from the South by incorporating it into a constitutional amendment.

“If North Korea were to establish a new territorial clause through a constitutional amendment and sever its relationship with the South, the internal and external repercussions would be significant,” he said, hinting that Pyongyang might be taking calculated steps toward further isolating itself.

Inter-Korean hostilities have simmered this year as North Korea appears to have intensified its nuclear production efforts and strengthened ties with Russia, deepening widespread concern in the West over the isolated nation’s direction.

Last week, Kim threatened to use nuclear weapons to destroy South Korea if attacked, after South Korea’s president warned that if the North used nuclear weapons it would “face the end of its regime.”

By Khagan Isayev