North Korea has vowed to make the country’s borders with South Korea “impregnable”, as the powerful sister of dictator Kim Jong Un threatened Seoul with an “overwhelming” military response to any perceived provocation.
Kim Yo Jong, visited the border between the two countries alongside marshal Pak Jong-chon, a senior adviser to the North Korean military, where the two inspected work to fortify defences, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Ms Kim directed troops there to take “prompt and resolute action” in the face of any threat.
The border visit came after the South Korean military vowed to take its own “decisive” action in response to North Korea’s provocations, after Pyongyang threatened to deploy additional tactical strike capability along its borders.
Ms Kim has also threatened to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts towards the South.
She accused Seoul of escalating tensions with warning shots at North Korean troops, reported Yonhap News.
Tensions between North and South Korea have risen since Pyongyang began fortifying its border in April 2024, laying land mines, installing barbed-wire fences, as well as erecting anti-tank barriers along the Military Demarcation Line. Kim Jong Un has formally ended North Korea’s goal of reunifying with the South and declared South Korea to be a “hostile state”.
The two countries are separated by the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that was established when the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953.
Fortification work has repeatedly brought North Korean troops close to or past the MDL, prompting responses from South Korean forces that have included firing warning shots.
Seoul says Pyongyang has sent up to 7,000 workers to the border this year, with about 50 crossings of the Military Demarcation Line, which bisects the DMZ, to South Korea's side of the border.
Earlier last month, at least three South Korean soldiers were injured by a landmine explosion in the DMZ. South Korea and the UN command blamed the incident on mines planted by North Korea, which has denied involvement.
Calling the claims “deliberate, premeditated and absurd", Mr Pak said at the time that “our army knows where our borderline is better than any others, and we are doing what we should do in our territory”.
Mr Pak also directed the troops to "turn the borderline into an impregnable fortress," calling for "very proficient, specialised and overwhelming military action in response to the reckless moves of the hideous enemy."
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