SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea displayed its fury at Seoul on Tuesday in spectacular style, blowing up two key road crossing points at opposite ends of the Demilitarized Zone, the flashpoint militarized frontier that divides the two Koreas.
No casualties or damages were reported in South Korea, but the explosions prompted warning shots from South Korean troops, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.
A South Korean government spokesperson said a machine gun was fired into the ground south of the Military Demarcation Line — the actual frontier running through the center of the 2.48-mile-wide DMZ.
South Korean video footage showed the detonations had destroyed dozens of yards of tarmac on the northern side of the MDL. Inter-Korean rail lines close to the roads had already been dismantled north of the border starting in May.
None of the DMZ road or rail crossings have been transited for years, but had been left in place by both governments — until now.
Inter-Korean relations have been on ice since the failure of former President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2019. Ties deteriorated further after conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in Seoul in 2022.
But the Kim regime had sent signals that Tuesday’s explosions were on the way. Last week, the North said it would cut the crossings, pre-warning U.S. forces stationed on the peninsula to prevent “accidental conflict.”
The blasts took place at two crossing points at opposite ends of the DMZ, which slices across the center of the Korean Peninsula: the Gyeonghui Line in the west, and the Donghae Line in the east.
The Gyeonghui Line connected South Korea to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which opened in 2004. The Donghae Line connected to the Mount Kumgang Tourism Resort, which opened in 1998. Both inter-Korean projects were built by North Korean workers on North Korean land, using South Korean capital.
Both initiatives were undertaken under pro-engagement governments in Seoul. Both ended when more conservative administrations came to power in the South.
The Kaesong complex closed in 2016 amid peninsula tensions. The Mount Kumgang resort was closed in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.
Tuesday’s events, though bloodless, reflect the dire state of cross-DMZ relations. Over the weekend, the North accused the South of flying drones over its capital, Pyongyang, showering the city with anti-regime leaflets.
Such messaging has customarily been attached to balloons launched northward by civic activists in the South. Dropping propaganda on the state’s showpiece capital, 99 miles north of the frontier, marks a radical new escalation in the propaganda wars.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it would “neither confirm nor deny” a role in the new operation. Analysts said it was still unclear whether the drone mission was a deniable operation by the government, a private effort by anti-North Korea activists, or an operation using activists sponsored by the South.
On Monday, North Korea put its border artillery brigades on standby and Mr. Kim chaired a high-level meeting on the alleged incursions. The road demolitions also follow months of efforts by North Korean troops to fortify border crossing points with new mines and defensive barriers.
Both crossing points, and the inter-Korean sites, had fed into the wider road network north of the DMZ. As such, they could feasibly be used for a road- or rail-borne military operation, said Steve Tharp, a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel retired in South Korea who conducts DMZ tours.
In the first hours of the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korean troops rode a train into Kaesong, then held by South Korean forces. They captured the city by surprise, clearing the way for an attack upon Seoul, just 35 miles to the south.
Given the massively fortified state of the DMZ today, any such action would be impossible, Mr. Tharp said. He was unconcerned by Tuesday’s activities.
“It is just a symbolic thing,” he said. “I would equate it with the blowing up of the building at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.”
In 2020, North Korea blew up a South Korean-built liaison building in an abandoned industrial park, angering Seoul but generating no wider repercussions.
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
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