South Korea has strongly condemned North Korea’s decision to cut all road and rail links at the border. Local media reported it. Seoul’s Ministry of Unification – reported the South Korean news agency Yonhap – defined the decision as a setback for the aspirations of the people of both Koreas towards unification. Yesterday, Pyongyang – as reported by the state-controlled KCNA news agency – announced its intention to cut off all road and rail links with South Korea, adding that the border will also be reinforced with “strong defense structures”.
Recent satellite images show that North Korea has begun demolishing roads and railways near the border that once connected the now-closed Kaesong Industrial Park, a joint venture financed by Seoul. Since Kim declared late last year that the two Koreas are now “hostile states,” North Korea has systematically severed physical ties at the border. The South Korean military also said that North Korea has placed tens of thousands of mines along the border in recent months.
“We strongly condemn North Korea’s measure as an anti-unification and anti-national act that rejects the unification aspiration of our people and residents of North Korea,” the South Korean Ministry of Unification said. North Korea’s closure of transport links is seen as largely symbolic, as there has been no direct trade across the heavily militarized border between the two countries for many years.
Stop reunification objective
Last Tuesday, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had said he had given up on the reunification of the Korean Peninsulaan issue that – he explained – in North Korea “no longer interests anyone”. “Before there was a lot of talk about liberating the South and uniting it by force, but now all that doesn’t interest us and, since we founded the two countries, we have even less awareness of that country,” he said, adding that North Korea is ready to adopt a new constitution that designates the South as a “hostile” nation and redraws maritime borders. A change which, analysts warn, could dismantle decades of cautious diplomacy and increase military tensions.
Article 9 of the Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea states that it aims to realize socialism “in the northern half of Korea” and seeks “reunification on the principle of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity.” “Constitutional amendments defining inter-Korean ties as two hostile states and other related measures are expected“Koo Byung-sam, spokesperson for South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, told reporters on Monday. However, it is not yet clear when exactly the decision will be formally made.
Amendments to the constitution
Analysts expect the amended constitution to include clauses defining North Korea as a “separate socialist state,” signaling a definitive break from any historical or ethnic ties with the South. While inter-Korean relations have been mixed, these constitutional changes could seriously hinder the prospects of their recovery in the medium and long term, according to Lim Eul-chul, professor of political science at Kyungnam University in Changwon.
“The constitutional revision opens a new chapter in the deterioration of inter-Korean tieswhich began after the failure of the 2019 Hanoi summit,” Lim said, referring to the meeting between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump. “Tensions will likely escalate further in an endless cycle of exchanging tit-for-tats he added. In January, Kim declared that, in the event of war, the North would have to fully occupy the South and integrate it into its territory. This marks a complete departure from the 1991 inter-Korean framework agreement, which had defined relations as an “interim special relationship” with reunification as the ultimate goal. The agreement called for mutual recognition of each other’s political systems, a commitment to refrain from military aggression, and the pursuit of reunification through gradual exchanges and cooperation.
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