Seoul says North Korea moving to blow up cross-border roads – DW – 10/14/2024
www.dw.com
South Korea says it has detected preparations by North Korea to blow up its sections of inter-Korean roads. Tensions have been soaring between the two countries in recent weeks.

South Korea says it has detected preparations by North Korea to blow up its sections of inter-Korean roads. Tensions have been soaring between the two countries in recent weeks.

South Korean officials said on Monday that they had gathered intelligence indicating that the North was preparing to demolish its half of roads that connect the two countries.

“They have installed screens on the road and are working behind those screens, preparing to blow up the roads,” Lee Sung Joon, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

He said the operation could take place as soon as Monday.

The move follows weeks of soaring tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea has accused South Korea of using drones to drop propaganda leaflets over its territory three times, and threatened to respond with force if it happens again.

  • Warl0k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    22 days ago

    Seems like being stressed out over two nuclear powers (even if one of them has the tinkertoy equivalent of an arsenal…) playing geopolitical chicken isn’t the most unreasonable reaction I could have.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
          64·
          22 days ago

          My point is that this sort of thing has been regularly happening with North Korea for years. And far more aggressive acts too. This is not the end of it all.

          Edit: Also, South Korea has no nuclear weapons, so this isn’t between two nuclear powers.

          • abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us
            2·
            20 days ago

            Agreed - NK likes to saber rattle a lot. This is just more of the same.

            One thing I have to begrudingly admit - they are really smart at approaching the edge of the line (to a nation ending war), without crossing it.

            Also, it’s true that South Korea is not a nuclear armed State, but I can see why NK might sometimes feel like the opposite. South Korea hosts nukes from the US (for the defense of Korea) and is under the nuclear umbrella of the US (where the US promises to use nuclear weapons to defend South Korea if it’s attacked by a nuclear armed opponent).

            More saliently, South Korea has successfully launched into outer space - this is the same rocket technology needed to launch an ICBM. So even if the US broke away, South Korea could go nuclear very quickly.

            These are all part of NK’s calculation when it considers how far it’s willing to go in saber rattling.

          • Warl0k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            22 days ago

            Did I say somewhere I thought this was going to turn into WWIII, or that this would be the end of it all? No, I said it was yet another extremely stressful thing to heap onto the pile. You’re inventing what I said and arguing against that.
            (The united states was the 2nd nuclear power to which I was referring. There are ample US nuclear assets stationed in KR.)

              • Warl0k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                22 days ago

                From your article:

                Under the new deal, the US will make its defense commitments more visible by sending a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in 40 years, along with other strategic assets, including nuclear-capable bombers.

                Dude, squiddy, even a single Ohio class submarine could wipe out half the life on this planet. I get you think I haven’t understood your message, and maybe you think this is somehow helpful instead of incredibly patronizing, but it’s concerning that the moderator of a news community doesn’t understand that news can be both important to read and at the same time deeply stressful.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
                  13·
                  22 days ago

                  but it’s concerning that the moderator of a news community doesn’t understand that news can be both important to read and at the same time deeply stressful.

                  1. My job as a moderator is to enforce the rules in the sidebar. Those rules do not involve such things.
                  2. It’s because I recognize this is stressful that I literally have said things like, “then I wouldn’t look into this issue too deeply or you will be eternally stressed” and “so, again, maybe this isn’t worth getting so worried about.” I have no idea why you would think I would say those two things to you but not understand that it can be stressful.

                  I have been attempting to explain why this should not stress you out so much. I guess that makes me a bad moderator.

                  • Warl0k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    1·
                    22 days ago

                    If indeed your job is to just enforce the rules in the sidebar (and assuming we somehow ignore that authority in a subject comes with responsibility over said subject), why are you commenting on the topic from a position of authority at all? Clearly that’s an overstep of the premise you have put forward. But while I understand you think you were trying to be helpful, what you’re actually saying is that I should just “not think about it”. That doesn’t, you know, actually help. If your advice is going to be “don’t read the news” why do you moderate this group at all? That’s literally a textbook example of acting in bad faith. Despite the fact you don’t read the sources you throw out to support your point, you claim to be somehow knowledgeable enough in this topic to advise others on if they should/should not consume said media based of a single comment you repeatedly misrepresent.

                    And that’s not kindness or understanding, squid. That’s being a jerk.