North Korea ramps up isolation with roadblocks and ditches

On October 15, North Korea detonated sections of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads, located north of the inter-Korean border. This continued their earlier announcement of cutting all road and rail links with South Korea.

The South Korean agency Yonhap reports that about 300 to 400 people worked on the northern sections of the Gyeongui and Donghae routes, engaged in piling up earthen mounds in the area of the damaged roads.

Kim Jong Un's country constructed concrete anti-tank ditches at the southern ends of these mounds, cutting through the remaining road sections. According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), constructing these barriers is more of a symbolic gesture without any real strategic significance.

For the North Korean military, these are not appropriate barriers during wartime. It seems they are just for show, to mark it as their territory, a JCS official told reporters.

As reported by Yonhap, the anti-tank ditch built by North Korea along the Donghae line is 525 feet long and reaches a depth of 16 feet. Meanwhile, the ditch along the Gyeongui line is shallower, with a depth of 10 feet.

North Korea is gradually erasing traces of aspirations for Korean unification and reconciliation. This is especially true after its leader described the relations between the two Koreas as ties between "two hostile states" during a party meeting late last year.

As reported by Yonhap, even before last month's explosions, the North removed streetlights and installed mines on its side of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads. Additionally, it deployed soldiers to erect symbolic anti-tank barriers on the northern side of the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two countries.