By Jake Horton, Yi Ma, Daniele Palumbo, BBC Confirm
BBCNorth Korea is constructing sections of what seems to be a wall in a number of locations close to its border with South Korea, new satellite tv for pc photos reveal.
Photographs analysed by BBC Confirm additionally present that land contained in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) has been cleared, which specialists say might be a violation of the long-standing truce with South Korea.
The DMZ is a 4km (2.5 miles) huge buffer zone between North and South Korea, who’re nonetheless technically at warfare having by no means signed a peace treaty. The DMZ is break up in two, with all sides managed by the respective nations.
This latest exercise is “uncommon”, based on specialists, and comes at a time of rising tensions between the 2 nations.
“At this level we will solely speculate that North Korea is seeking to strengthen its navy presence and fortifications alongside the border,” says Shreyas Reddy, a correspondent on the specialist website NK Information, primarily based in Seoul.
BBC Confirm commissioned high-resolution satellite tv for pc imagery of a 7km stretch of the border as a part of a venture to take a look at adjustments North Korea was making to the world.
These photos seem to point out not less than three sections the place boundaries have been erected close to the DMZ, protecting a complete of about 1km near the jap finish of the border.
It’s attainable that there was additional barrier building alongside different stretches of the border.
The precise date building started is unclear as a consequence of a scarcity of earlier high-resolution imagery within the space. Nonetheless, these constructions weren’t seen in a picture captured in November 2023.
“My private evaluation is that that is the primary time they’ve ever constructed a barrier within the sense of separating locations from one another,” Dr Uk Yang, a navy and defence skilled at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Coverage Research informed the BBC.
“Again within the Nineteen Nineties, North Korea had arrange the anti-tank partitions to discourage the advance of tanks in case warfare broke out. However not too long ago, North Korea has been establishing partitions 2-3m excessive, they usually do not seem like the anti-tank partitions,” Dr Yang says.
“The form of the partitions means that they aren’t simply obstacles [for tanks], however are meant to divide an space,” provides Dr Yang, who reviewed the satellite tv for pc photos.
There may be additionally proof of land clearance inside the North Korean facet of the DMZ.
The most recent satellite tv for pc imagery of the jap finish of the boundary exhibits what seems to be a newly created entry street.
In drawing the exact northern boundary of the DMZ within the map above, we’ve got adopted the BBC’s analysis on border mapping. It’s because there are slight variations within the obtainable maps of the boundary. Nonetheless, all of the variations we’ve positioned present the land clearance going down inside the DMZ.
An official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Employees (JCS) stated in a latest briefing interview that the navy had recognized ongoing exercise associated to the “reinforcement of tactical roads, the laying of mines and the clearing of wasteland”.
“The land clearing might be meant for each navy and non-military elements”, says Prof Kil Joo Ban, professor of worldwide safety at Korea College.
“It permits observatory posts to be simply established,” he says “for North Korea to watch navy actions in South Korea” and to identify “defectors who try to cross the border to South Korea.”
Getty“It’s uncommon to construct constructions within the DMZ and could also be a violation of the armistice with out prior session,” based on Prof Victor Cha, the senior vice chairman for Asia and Korea at on the Centre for Strategic and Worldwide Research.
The Korean Warfare resulted in 1953 with an armistice, by which either side pledged to not “execute any hostile act inside, from, or in opposition to the demilitarised zone”. However there was no last peace settlement.
Whereas reunification has appeared unlikely for years, this had all the time been the acknowledged aim of North Korean leaders till the beginning of 2024, when Kim Jong Un introduced that his nation would not pursue that ambition.
Some specialists referred to as the remarks “unprecedented” and noticed a major coverage change when Mr Kim labelled South Korea as a “principal enemy” initially of this yr.
Since then, the North has additionally began to take away symbols representing the unity of the 2 nations – similar to demolishing monuments and erasing references to reunification on authorities web sites.
“North Korea doesn’t really want extra boundaries to forestall a strike from the South however by erecting these border boundaries, the North is signalling that it doesn’t search reunification,” says Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo, head of European and Worldwide Research at Kings Faculty London.
Some specialists additionally say this aligns with Mr Kim’s broader actions.
“North Korea is just not even pretending to need to negotiate with america or South Korea, and has rebuffed the latest makes an attempt by Japan to interact in talks,” says Dr Edward Howell, Korean Peninsula researcher at Oxford.
“With North Korea’s warming relations with Russia, we shouldn’t be stunned if inter-Korean provocations improve this yr.”
