North Korea Threatens Nuclear Attack, Destroys Roads and Rail Lines to South Korea

North Korea Threatens Nuclear Attack, Destroys Roads and Rail Lines to South Korea

It’s been a while since I reported on North Korea. However, some troubling developments recently indicate that this “hot pot” is heating up intensely.

Last week, North Korea accused South Korea of sending drones to drop propaganda leaflets over the capital city of Pyongyang. The drones, supposedly, managed to penetrate what’s supposed to be one of the most fortified airspaces in the world to make the drop.

North Korea had a response that seems..disproportionate.  The rogue nation has now destroyed roads and rail lines between the two countries.

North Korea blew up sections of inter-Korean roads and rail lines on its side of the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas on Tuesday, prompting South Korea’s military to fire warning shots.

Pyongyang said last week it would cut off the inter-Korean roads and railways entirely and further fortify the areas on its side of the border as part of its push for a “two-state” system scrapping its longstanding goal of unification.

At around midday on Tuesday, some northern parts of road and rail lines connected to the South were destroyed, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

Seoul’s unification ministry, which handles cross-border affairs, condemned the incident as a clear violation of past inter-Korean agreements, calling it “highly abnormal.”

North Korea reports that the drones dropped propaganda leaflets on three separate occasions. South Korea is neither confirming nor denying its involvement.

At the start of this week, North Korea asserted that its front-line army units are ready to launch strikes on South Korea should the drone activity continue. The rhetoric is intensifying, as are the tensions.

In a statement carried by state media Sunday, the North’s Defense Ministry said that the military had issued a preliminary operation order to artillery and other army units near the border with South Korea to “get fully ready to open fire.”

An unidentified ministry spokesperson said the North Korea’s military ordered relevant units to fully prepare for situations like launching immediate strikes on unspecified enemy targets when South Korea infiltrates drones across the border again, possibly triggering fighting on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement.

…Also Sunday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described as “suicidal” the South Korean Defense Ministry’s reported warning that North Korea would face the end of its regime if it harms South Korean nationals. She warned Saturday that the discovery of a new South Korean drone will “certainly lead to a horrible disaster.”

North Korea often issues such fiery, blistering rhetoric in times of elevated animosities with South Korea and the United States.

The rhetoric includes the threat of nuclear weapons and may be timed to coincide with the US Presidential election.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the United States, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported Tuesday.

Kim has issued similar threats to use nuclear weapons preemptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as outside experts say North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s U.S. presidential election.

In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong Un University of National Defense, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack capabilities against its enemies” if they attempt to use armed forces” against North Korea, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“The use of nuclear weapons is not ruled out in this case,” he said.

South Korean military officials say they are “fully ready” to respond after North Korea ordered army units on the border to be “ready to open fire” if their northern neighbor takes the military options. South Korea also notes that Kim’s regime has sent its own propaganda drones on previous occasions.

“Our military is closely monitoring the situation and standing fully ready for the North’s provocations,” Lee Seong-joon, a spokesman for the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a press briefing.

…”The North can’t even confirm the origin of a drone in the Pyongyang sky but is placing blame on the South — all the while keeping a shut mouth on its sending of a drone southward on ten occasions,” spokesman Lee said.

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