Kim Yo Jong Inspects Border Fortifications Amid Rising Tensions with South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, visited frontline areas where soldiers are reinforcing the heavily fortified border with South Korea. During the visit, she renewed threats to retaliate against any South Korean provocations targeting the fortification work, according to state media reports on Wednesday.

Tensions between the two war-divided rivals have escalated following an incident last month in which three South Korean soldiers were injured in landmine blasts. The South Korean military blamed the explosions on North Korean devices planted south of the military demarcation line.

According to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong toured the border areas on Tuesday alongside Korean People’s Army Marshal Pak Jong Chon, one of her brother’s top military officials. She described the North’s fortification efforts as a “sacred and great undertaking” that supports the leader’s policy of permanently severing ties with South Korea. Pyongyang has declared Seoul its most hostile adversary amid a broader stalemate in diplomacy with Washington.

“Our military leadership has emphasized the need to make those rogues aware that our new firepower units have taken their firing positions,” she stated, reminding soldiers of her brother’s order to make the border with the “enemy eternally impregnable.”

Earlier this month, following an inspection with the U.S.-led United Nations Command, Seoul formally blamed North Korean-planted mines for the September 21 border blasts. The South Korean government urged Pyongyang to apologize and clear its remaining mines. This announcement came after North Korea denied responsibility for the explosions and warned of strong retaliation if provoked.

Kim Yo Jong’s border inspection occurred a day after she warned that North Korea could restart anti-Seoul propaganda broadcasts using loudspeakers—a previously used psychological warfare tool—and deploy more powerful weapons along the border with South Korea. She accused the South of firing warning shots and making warning broadcasts toward North Korean soldiers fortifying border areas under the false pretext that they had crossed the border. She insisted that such provocations have increased “beyond the red line” since the mine blasts.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Jin Yong Sung, described Kim Yo Jong’s threats as “intolerable” and ordered the military to “sternly respond” to potential provocations from the North.

In recent years, North Korea has added mines, barbed wire fences, anti-tank barriers, and other fortifications to what is already one of the world’s most heavily armed borders, as Kim Jong Un has pushed a hardline policy toward Seoul.

The South Korean military stated that North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line 50 times this year during fortification work, prompting South Korea to respond with warning shots and broadcasts.

During Tuesday’s border inspection, Pak accused the South of making “deliberate, premeditated, and absurd” claims to shift blame to the North over rising tensions and threatened an “overwhelming response” to South Korean provocations. He denied that North Korean soldiers were breaching the border during fortification work, stating, “Our army knows where our borderline is better than any others,” according to KCNA.

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