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.
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Oh for fucks sake, now this?? Can we all just take a step back and calm down, between ‘US/Taiwan/China’, ‘Ukraine/Russia’ and ‘Israel/Every Decent Person’ my ability to worry about new things is at it’s limit, kindly give it a month then try this again okay Kim?
Oh for fucks sake, now this?? Can we all just take a step back and calm down, between ‘US/Taiwan/China’, ‘Ukraine/Russia’ and
I suppose sealing the border may be related, as North Korea is also sending soldiers to Ukraine, and this happened at about the same time.
That being said, it’s also true that North Korea pretty regularly does attention-getting things, and I suppose that it’s not impossible that this is one of those.
This isn’t even that attention getting. North Korea has consistently stated over the past few years that they no longer entertain the idea of reunification.
Blowing up internal roads isn’t that provocative.
Dude, getting rid of some roads isn’t going to start WWIII.
North Korea probably just needs money again and they ran out of rockets to shoot into the ocean, which is what they usually do when they need money.
It’s not, but I don’t think it’s money.
Putin told kju the west was weak, and now was the time to strike, just like he told Xi in 2022.
Kju will posture because he isn’t sure whether to believe or not, and mildly ratting his saber covers all eventualities.
Iran was similar, as was Hamas, putin is pushing for maximum instability in hopes that the west will decide supporting Ukraine is too risky.
The problem is: we’ve see this all before, appeasement doesn’t bring peace, it just encourages more war.
This is really part of Putin’s whole contingency plan of forming a counter to nato, with all the worst outcasts and China, because he figured half the world would rally around him after kyiv fell.
Rally around him or at least be Neville Chamberlains. He’s mostly gotten the latter from the minority of nations not condemning him and very little of the former.
Tbf to him, from his vantage point the fall of Afghanistan did seem like the signal to strike.
He just vastly underestimated the underlying strength of the west because we basically exaggerate our capabilities far less than he’s used to under vranyo, so our minor defeat wasn’t actually a sign of us hiding our complete collapse.
fall of Afghanistan
You mean the fall that he orchestrated via trump?
If you want to consider that the start, Putin started it.
Heh, I agree, much like he contributed massively to Brexit.
But understand this: In this story, he’s the main character, he sees things a bit differently, for him re-uniting the Russian Empire is a matter of destiny and anything that helps was meant to be, while any setbacks must be sabotage of the natural way by the evil and petty western powers.
That’s just how things look at that level, it’s why dictatorships are bad, they reinforce narcissistic blindness.
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.
Then I wouldn’t look into this issue too deeply or you will be eternally stressed.
You’re not wrong - Ignorance is, rather famously, bliss.
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.
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.
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.)Not really. As of 2023, the U.S. plan is to regularly one nuclear submarine to South Korea. Then it leaves again.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65404805
So, again, maybe this isn’t worth getting so worried about.
As someone who was in the infantry and knows a LOT of soldiers stationed at the DMZ, this shit is not news.
No, them posturing surely isn’t. I’m just at the point where it’s just a little bit much to add “nuclear power throwing a tantrum in the grocery store aisle of geopolitics” on top of everything else
As someone who is apparently an “authority” on every issue in the universe while on c/worldnews… Don’t bother. Trust me.
See, this is what I’m talking about. You’re not an authority on the topic at hand, you’re an authority figure within this community. Why are you pivoting to passive-aggressively talking past the actual person? That’s just mean, and petty, and you’re better than this, man. You clearly understand what I was saying, so how does doing this further the conversation? Why are you intentionally misrepresenting what I was saying to you?
Is it really that hard to acknowledge even polite criticism?
No, they’ve repeatedly demonstrated to not be “better than this”. It’s Unidan all over again.
you’re an authority figure within this community.
Cool, then I’m going to use that authority to tell you to leave me alone.
Why not just block me, then? You’re the one telling other people to “Don’t bother. Trust me.” when I comment on totally unrelated to you posts, and then threatening me when I call you out for your behavior.
That’s not just not okay, dude.That’s literal harassment.
Before using the website, remember you will be interacting with actual, real people and communities. Lemmy.World is not a place for you to attack other people or groups of people. Just because you disagree with someone doesn’t give you the right to harass them. Discuss ideas and be critical of principles. Show the respect you desire to receive.
For my part in this, I’m sorry? I don’t entirely know what for, but evidently you’re hurting, and that really was never my intent.
I didn’t threaten you. Hence your comment not getting deleted and you not getting banned for not leaving me alone. I guess I’m not the authority figure you think I am.
Please do continue to do this silly rant at me though. As long as you don’t violate any rules, there’s nothing I’ll do about it.
And if you feel I am harassing you, you should definitely report me to Lemmy admins. Will you do it?
Don’t worry it’s fine. relax
Thank you Nutsack, that’s very reassuring
I usually find my nutsack to be a fairly reliable source tbh
Ah, perhaps my stress is due to the lack of a geopolitical dowsing-scrotum. Modern medical science, please get on this! /s ( <3 )
“How they DARE to even think to have some trade with us??? Fuck them, we will blow our own roads and rails, this will teach them a lesson!” - the geniuses in command
Yeah, this is such a silly move, lol. I mean, sure, SK wouldn’t be able to use them. But, neither would your army… In a sense, you’re admitting that if it came to a war, you’re not strong enough to launch an offensive campaign and are preparing to immediately go on the defense. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless your government’s propaganda is constantly talking up how glorious and powerful your leader and military are.
Assuming they go through with it, it’s is a pretty clear message that diplomatic attempts are at an end. These roads haven’t been used in years because of how insane the north koreans are, but removing them only impacts civilian transit - militaries, even hilariously inept ones like the DPRK, have the ability to lay transit paths in minutes (or may not even need them, military vehicles being known for their offroad capability). And that’s not even including the famed ‘invasion tunnels’, or that a ground assault isn’t needed when 20% of your population is within the effective range of thousands (yes, thousands) of already emplaced artillery pieces.
At least that means they don’t plan to use them for an invasion soon?
All the adversaries to US hegemony came to the conclusion that the US cannot be everywhere at once. So now they are weakened and possibly turn isolationist… this is the time to start testing the fences for there might be an opportunity opening up soon.
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