The North Korean government detonated explosives on cross-border roads connecting its country to South Korea on Tuesday in response to alleged drone incursions into its territory.
South Korean military officials expected the detonation, warning ahead of time that they were making defensive preparations in case of escalation.
“It is deplorable that North Korea is repeatedly conducting such regressive behavior,” said Koo Byoung-sam, spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s regime voiced outrage this week at South Korea and the United States after multiple drones were allegedly discovered in the area surrounding the capital city of Pyongyang.
The roads and railways destroyed on Tuesday were largely unused by either nation, meaning the destruction of such infrastructure is mostly symbolic and not a logistical disruption.
The detonations also took place in the northern sections of the roads, well within North Korean territory.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff fired warning shots in response to the detonations.
“We clearly know that the military dregs of the [Republic of Korea] are chiefly to blame for the case of drone infiltration into Pyongyang,” Kim Yo Jong, sister of Kim Jong Un and vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said earlier this week.
She warned that “if the sovereignty of a nuclear weapons state was violated by mongrels tamed by Yankees, the master of those dogs should be held accountable for this.”
Military engagements between North Korea and South Korea ended in 1953 with the signing of an armistice, but a lack of a treaty ending the Korean War means the two nations remain in armed conflict on paper.
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Kim Jong Un and his regime have become increasingly belligerent toward their southern neighbor this year, working to rewrite the national constitution to enshrine South Korea as the “No. 1 enemy.”
North Korea has also dropped all pretenses of seeking reunification with South Korea — until this year, the political philosophy of the Workers’ Party of Korea has ostensibly sought a reunified Korea under the banner of the Kim regime.