▲ This undated photo, provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Nov. 4, 2024, shows an earthen mound and an anti-tank trench built on the Donghae Line. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
▲ This undated photo, provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Nov. 4, 2024, shows an earthen mound and an anti-tank trench built on the Gyeongui Line. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

military-NK border activity

N. Korea raises earthen hills to block severed inter-Korean roads: S. Korean military

SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has raised 11-meter-high earthen hills to completely block inter-Korean roads that it blew up last month, South Korea's military said Monday, in yet another show of Pyongyang's efforts to sever ties with the South.

Around 300 to 400 personnel have each been deployed to raise the mounds just north of the sections of the western Gyeongui Line and the eastern Donghae Line the North blew up last month, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

On the southern edge of the mounds, the North has also built anti-tank concrete trenches that run across the remnants of the roads.

On Oct. 15, North Korea blew up parts of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads north of the inter-Korean border, days after its military vowed to cut off all roads and railways linked to the South and build front-line defense structures.

The JCS believes the earthen hills are merely for show and have no military utility.

"For North Korea's military, these are not (suitable) barriers during wartime," the official said. "It appears to be just for show to mark it as their territory."

The ditch built on the Donghae Line spans 160 meters and is five meters deep, a JCS official told reporters on condition of anonymity, noting the trench on the Gyeongui Line is similar in size but is three meters deep.

The earthen mound on the Gyeongui Line measures at about 120 meters across and 50 meters from front to back, the official said, adding the North has planted trees on the mounds on the two roads.

The military also spotted North Korean personnel planting the country's flag on the hill on the Donghae Line on Friday to take pictures, the official said.

The Gyeongui Line had connected the South's western border city of Paju to the North's Kaesong, while the Donghae Line ran along the east coast.

North Korea has been wiping out traces of inter-Korean unification and reconciliation after its leader defined inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other" at a year-end party meeting last year.

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