S. Korea condemns N. Korea’s move to block border as ‘anti-unification’ act
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Yonhap) — The unification ministry on Thursday “strongly” condemned North Korea’s move to cut off all roads and railways connected to South Korea as an act that dampens aspiration for unification by people in the two Koreas.
North Korea’s military said Wednesday it will “permanently shut off and block the southern border” with South Korea by cutting off all roads and rail links with the South and building front-line defense structures.
The North said the measure will “completely separate” North Korea’s territory from that of South Korea, which Pyongyang called the “primary hostile state and invariable principal enemy.”
“We strongly condemn North Korea’s measure as an anti-unification and anti-national act that spurns aspiration for unification by our people and residents in North Korea,” a unification ministry said.
The official said North Korea had not notified the South of its measure in advance as it appears to want to avoid inter-Korean contact under its “two hostile states” stance.
The two Koreas have roads and railways connected to each other — along the Gyeongui line, which connects the South’s western border city of Paju to the North’s Kaesong, and the Donghae line along the east coast.
Since earlier this year, North Korea has so far installed landmines and removed street lights along its side of the Gyeongui and Donghae land routes, and removed railway sleepers on the northern side of the two rail links in a move to erase the legacy of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation.
At a year-end party meeting in December, North Korean leader defined inter-Korean relations as those between “two states hostile to each other” and vowed not to seek reconciliation and unification with South Korea.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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