North Korea's roadblocks: Symbolic barriers in a divided peninsula
North Korea has erected 11-metre earthen mounds, completely blocking roads leading to South Korea. Previously, these roads were destroyed. This action is another signal of Pyongyang's efforts to sever all ties with South Korea.
On October 15, North Korea demolished parts of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads, which run north of the inter-Korean border. This continued their earlier announcement of cutting all road and rail links with South Korea.
The South Korean agency Yonhap reports that about 300 to 400 people worked on the northern sections of the Gyeongui and Donghae routes, engaging in piling up earthen mounds in the areas of the damaged roads.
At the southern ends of these mounds, Kim Jong Un's country constructed concrete anti-tank ditches, which cut through the remnants of the roads. According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), constructing these barriers is more of a symbolic gesture without any real strategic significance.
For the North Korean military, these are not appropriate barriers during wartime. It seems they are just for show, to mark it as their territory," a JCS official told reporters.
North Korea blew up roads. Now they've dug ditches
As reported by Yonhap, the anti-tank ditch built by North Korea along the Donghae line is 160 meters long and reaches a depth of 5 meters. Meanwhile, the ditch along the Gyeongui line is shallower, with a depth of about 3 meters.
North Korea is gradually erasing traces of aspirations for Korean unification and reconciliation, especially after its leader described the relations between the two Koreas as ties between "two hostile states" during a party meeting late last year.
As reported by Yonhap, even before last month's explosions, the North removed streetlights and installed mines on its side of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads. Additionally, it deployed soldiers to erect symbolic anti-tank barriers on the northern side of the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two countries.
