North Korea has reportedly begun dismantling power lines that the South had established to supply electricity to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, following the demolition of land routes on the Gyeongui and Donghae lines.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed that sightings were made of several North Korean military personnel climbing power towers along the Gyeongui line since the 24th, cutting some power lines. These power towers, in the form of steel towers, were built at intervals of several hundred meters along the road stretching from just north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), which was detonated by North Korea on October 15th, to the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
A total of 48 power towers are located in the section that extends from Munsan on the South Korean side to the Pyeonghwa Substation in North Korea, with 15 towers situated on the northern side.
These power facilities, constructed by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), had been supplying electricity to the Kaesong Industrial Complex since their interconnection between the two Koreas in December 2006. However, power supply was halted from February 2016 following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January that year.
As the inter-Korean relationship briefly thawed, the power supply partially resumed, but it was entirely cut off after North Korea’s unilateral demolition of the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in June 2020.
The dismantling of power towers appears to be part of a series of actions severing inter-Korean connections, following Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea’s declaration of South and North Korea as ‘hostile belligerent states.’
In January, Kim Jong Un stated that the relations between the two Koreas were no longer of the same ethnicity or kinship but rather of two hostile states in war. Since then, North Korea has removed streetlights along the Gyeongui and Donghae lines in March, removed ties between the Gyeongui and Donghae railway tracks in May, and exploded roads on those lines in October.
[Photo Source: Yonhap News]
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