According to South Korea, Kim Jong Un is still ordering the demolition of physical and symbolic markers of previous inter-Korean cooperation, and it seems that North Korea is undermining a railroad inside its own boundaries.
For South Korea, the suspected disassembly is a sign of the North’s persistent animosity, and any destruction would highlight the failure of an agreement to upgrade the line that had been reached in 2018.
The train rails on the Donghae line were reportedly being dismantled. The National Intelligence Service in Seoul verified the claim. A government source claimed that North Korean workers had dismantled railroad ties on the north side of the de facto inter-Korean border. The rectangular supports, often called crossties or sleepers, hold train tracks in an upright and properly spaced position, guaranteeing their continued functioning. The South Korean intelligence agency said that they are closely watching the situation.
Nevertheless, at the 2019 Kim-Trump encounter, the inter-Korean peace process and the railway proposal both collapsed.
The Donghae line and the western Gyeongui line have not been used much since a trial run in 2007. By destroying the infrastructure, North Korea is sending a message that it thinks reunification with the South is impossible. North Korea’s choice to remove the cross-border Donghae railway seemed to indicate its opinion that peace with the South was very improbable.
A news agency in South Korea said that the Unification Ministry in Seoul predicted that Pyongyang would soon reveal more obvious measures to separate the two Koreas.
Kim characterized North-South ties as those antagonistic during a Workers’ Party conference held at the conclusion of the year. He has ordered the destruction of monuments and stamps representing the unity of the country after declaring South Korea his regime’s main enemy in January.
The South Korean military said in April that North Korean forces had deactivated streetlights and planted landmines on their side of the Donghae and Gyeongui border crossings.
The decision to terminate an agreement that was supposed to reduce tensions at the highly guarded Demilitarized Zone was officially authorized by South Korea’s cabinet on Tuesday by President Yoon Suk Yeol. It was in reaction to the North’s crossing the border with roughly a thousand trash-carrying balloons.
After resuming surveillance flights near the DMZ last year, the South Korean Defense Ministry said that all military operations would restart, placing the blame on the North.
