N. Korea raises earthen mounds to block severed inter-Korean roads: S. Korean military

North Korea has raised 11-meter-high earthen mounds to completely block inter-Korean roads that it blew up last month, South Korea's military said Monday, in yet another show of Pyongyang's efforts to sever ties with the South.

Around 300 to 400 personnel have each been deployed to raise the mounds just north of the sections of the western Gyeongui Line and the eastern Donghae Line the North blew up last month, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

On the southern edge of the mounds, the North has also built anti-tank concrete trenches that run across the remnants of the roads.

The North appears to have completed building the barriers as of Friday since beginning construction after blowing up the roads in mid-October, according to the JCS.

On Oct. 15, North Korea blew up parts of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads north of the inter-Korean border, days after its military vowed to cut off all roads and railways linked to the South and build front-line defense structures.

The JCS believes the mounds are merely for show and have no military utility.

"For North Korea's military, these are not (suitable) barriers during wartime," a JCS official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "It appears to be just for show to mark it as their territory."

The ditch built on the Donghae Line spans 160 meters and is five meters deep, while the trench on the Gyeongui Line is similar in size but is three meters deep.

The earthen mound on the Gyeongui Line measures at about 120 meters across and 50 meters from front to back, the official said, adding the North has planted trees on the mounds on the two roads.

The military also spotted North Korean personnel planting the country's flag on the hill on the Donghae Line on Friday to take pictures, the official said, adding that it has yet to detect any military activity since.

The Gyeongui Line had connected the South's western border city of Paju to the North's Kaesong, while the Donghae Line ran along the east coast.

North Korea has been wiping out traces of inter-Korean unification and reconciliation after its leader defined inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other" at a year-end party meeting last year.

Prior to last month's explosions, the North removed street lamps and installed mines along its side of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads, while deploying troops to build apparent anti-tank barriers within its side of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. (Yonhap)