This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has officially cut off sections of roads leading to South Korea, including vital rail links, by blowing them up.
According to the Associated Press, rising tensions between the two nations escalated to threats of destruction after South Korea allegedly flew drones over North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, to distribute anti-regime pamphlets.
The AP further reported in response to the demolition, South Korean soldiers fired warning shots toward the country's border zone, however, there was no reported damage on the South Korea side from the explosions.
"It is deplorable that North Korea is repeatedly conducting such regressive behavior," Koo said.
According to a report from Bloomberg, North Korea has designated South Korea as a "hostile state" within its constitution on Thursday which was reported by state media.
"This is an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK [Democratic People;s Republic of Korea] Constitution which clearly defines the ROK [Republic of Korea] as a hostile state," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
Both sides have technically still been at war since the Korean war reached an armistice in 1953, rather than a peace treaty. After years of hostility, in 2018 the two sides declared there would be a new era of peace between them. These peaceful relations have quickly eroded since then – with both sides accusing each other of undermining the other.
South Korean officials have said since May, there have been approximately 5,500 of these balloons sent over the border, which has interrupted airline flights, and forced the closure of runways.
North Korea has recently been sending troops to Russia to fight against Ukraine, a move that has now caused Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to declare war on North Korea, and Russia's other close ally, Iran.
"North Korea, the Kim family, which holds 20 millionths of the Korean people in slavery, our intelligence records not only the transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia, but also the transfer of people. These are workers for the Russian factories, instead of Russian citizens killed in the war and personnel for the Russian army, and this is already a fact. In fact, this is the participation of the second state in the war against Ukraine on the side of Russia," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy hinted that China – which was recently attempting to play peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine – was not doing anything effective to end the war.
"Everyone sees help of the Iranian regime for Putin, as well as cooperation of China with Russia. Beijing is abstaining from taking really serious effective steps to stop Putin, stop the aggression and Russia's violation of the UN charter … Ukrainians and all our partners, if we do not strengthen ourselves significantly now, Putin will have time to significantly strengthen himself next year, strengthen so he will reject diplomacy forever. Russia must lose the war against Ukraine," Zelenskyy said.
ABC News Australia reported there have been over 1.4 million North Koreans signing up to join or have returned to the nation's army, allegedly spurred on by the recent drone pamphlet drop. Currently, North Korea has over 1.28 million active soldiers, and approximately 600,000 in reserves.
