Published June 8, 2024
Recently captured satellite images reveal that North Korea has cleared a 1.8-mile strip of land extending into the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the 2.5-mile-wide boundary separating North and South Korea, an apparent escalation in tensions between the two nations.
Imagery from Planet Labs provided to Newsweek reveal at least four locations where newly cleared land has appeared in recent weeks, including one area that clearly extends past North Korea’s final border fence into the DMZ.
That cleared strip of land — visible in the large yellow box on the right-hand side of the image — was covered by vegetation as of late April. It now spans over half a mile inside the DMZ and follows a mountain ridge near South Korea’s Goseong Unification Observatory.
The activity revealed in the new images come after earlier reports that North Korean troops were constructing new positions at some guard posts near the DMZ. Photos published by the South Korean news site The Fact showed about 30 soldiers building new fortifications at an existing hilltop border post, their movements seen from across a river in Tanhyeon-myeon, in South Korea’s Paju region.
The most recent imagery however shows that the extent of the construction is more extensive than previously reported.
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SOURCE: www.newsweek.com
RELATED: South Korea to resume border military activity after suspending inter-Korean pact
The suspension will also allow South Korea to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts into the North.
A soldier stands guard at a checkpoint on the Grand Unification Bridge which leads to the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, just south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, June 17, 2020. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Published June 6, 2024
South Korea will restore all border military activities for the first time in more than five years, after it suspended a 2018 inter-Korean military pact, the defense ministry said Tuesday.
Seoul suspended the Comprehensive Military Agreement until mutual trust is restored in response to the North’s recent sending of trash-filled balloons to South Korea and its jamming of GPS signals.
“This measure is restoring to normality all military activities by our military, which had been restricted by the 2018 pact,” Cho Chang-rae, deputy defense minister for policy, said in a press briefing.
“All responsibility for causing this situation lies with the North Korean regime and if the North attempts to stage additional provocations, our military will sternly retaliate based on a firm South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture,” he added.
