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 photographs reveal.
Photos 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) broad buffer zone between North and South Korea, who’re nonetheless technically at struggle having by no means signed a peace treaty. The DMZ is cut up in two, with both sides managed by the respective nations.
This current exercise is “unusual”, in accordance with specialists, and comes at a time of rising tensions between the 2 international locations.
“At this point we can only speculate that North Korea is looking to strengthen its military presence and fortifications along 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 have a look at adjustments North Korea was making to the world.
These photographs seem to indicate at the least three sections the place obstacles have been erected close to the DMZ, overlaying a complete of about 1km near the japanese finish of the border.
It’s doable that there was additional barrier building alongside different stretches of the border.
The precise date building started is unclear as a result of an absence of earlier high-resolution imagery within the space. Nonetheless, these buildings weren’t seen in a picture captured in November 2023.
“My personal assessment is that this is the first time they’ve ever built a barrier in the sense of separating places from each other,” Dr Uk Yang, a army and defence knowledgeable at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Coverage Research informed the BBC.
“Back in the 1990s, North Korea had set up the anti-tank walls to deter the advance of tanks in case war broke out. But recently, North Korea has been setting up walls 2-3m high, and they don’t look like the anti-tank walls,” Dr Yang says.
“The shape of the walls suggests that they are not just obstacles [for tanks], but are intended to divide an area,” provides Dr Yang, who reviewed the satellite tv for pc photographs.
There’s additionally proof of land clearance inside the North Korean aspect of the DMZ.
The newest satellite tv for pc imagery of the japanese finish of the boundary reveals what seems to be a newly created entry highway.
In drawing the exact northern boundary of the DMZ within the map above, we now have adopted the BBC’s analysis on border mapping. It is because there are slight variations within the out there 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 Workers (JCS) mentioned in a current briefing interview that the army had recognized ongoing exercise associated to the “reinforcement of tactical roads, the laying of mines and the clearing of wasteland”.
“The land clearing could be intended for both military and non-military aspects”, says Prof Kil Joo Ban, professor of worldwide safety at Korea College.
“It allows observatory posts to be easily established,” he says “for North Korea to monitor military activities in South Korea” and to identify “defectors who attempt to cross the border to South Korea.”
Getty“It is unusual to build structures in the DMZ and may be a violation of the armistice without prior consultation,” in accordance with Prof Victor Cha, the senior vice chairman for Asia and Korea at on the Centre for Strategic and Worldwide Research.
The Korean Struggle resulted in 1953 with an armistice, by which each side pledged to not “execute any hostile act within, from, or against the demilitarised zone”. But there was no final peace settlement.
While reunification has seemed unlikely for years, this had always been the stated goal of North Korean leaders until the start of 2024, when Kim Jong Un announced that his country would no longer pursue that ambition.
Some experts called the remarks “unprecedented” and saw a significant policy change when Mr Kim labelled South Korea as a “principal enemy” at the beginning of this year.
Since then, the North has also started to remove symbols representing the unity of the two countries – such as demolishing monuments and erasing references to reunification on government websites.
“North Korea doesn’t really need more barriers to prevent a strike from the South but by erecting these border barriers, the North is signalling that it doesn’t seek reunification,” says Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo, head of European and International Studies at Kings College London.
Some experts also say this aligns with Mr Kim’s broader actions.
“North Korea is not even pretending to want to negotiate with the United States or South Korea, and has rebuffed the recent attempts by Japan to engage in talks,” says Dr Edward Howell, Korean Peninsula researcher at Oxford.
“With North Korea’s warming relations with Russia, we should not be surprised if inter-Korean provocations increase this year.”
