North Korea Blows up Parts of Inter-Korean Road on Its Side of Border, Seoul Says

North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
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North Korea Blows up Parts of Inter-Korean Road on Its Side of Border, Seoul Says

North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)

North Korea has blown up sections of an inter-Korean road on its side of the heavily militarized border between the two Koreas, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Tuesday.

At around midday, some parts of the road north of the military demarcation line dividing the countries were blown up, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message sent to media.

South Korea's military had ramped up surveillance and its readiness in response, it said. Seoul had warned on Monday that Pyongyang was getting ready to blow up the roads.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been increasing amid an escalating war of words after the North accused its rival of sending drones over the country's capital Pyongyang.

North Korea on Friday said the drones had scattered a "huge number" of anti-North leaflets over the city, in what it called political and military provocation that could lead to armed conflict.

A spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff declined on Monday to answer questions over whether the South Korean military or civilians had flown the alleged drones.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had overseen on Monday a meeting with defense and security officials to discuss how to respond to the "enemy's serious provocation that violated the sovereignty of the DPRK", state media KCNA reported. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.



Students Occupy Defense Firm Leonardo’s Turin Headquarters to Protest over Gaza

Palestinians carry the body of a man killed in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on November 13, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians carry the body of a man killed in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on November 13, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Students Occupy Defense Firm Leonardo’s Turin Headquarters to Protest over Gaza

Palestinians carry the body of a man killed in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on November 13, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians carry the body of a man killed in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on November 13, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Around a hundred students occupied Leonardo's Turin headquarters to denounce what they say is the Italian defense group's complicity in Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The students, who unfurled a flag of the Palestinian territories from the roof of Leonardo's offices, said the company was supporting Israel by providing remote technical assistance and spare parts to Israel's air force.

Leonardo declined to comment.

Images released by the students show them in Leonardo's offices waving Palestinian flags and carrying spray cans. Outside they hung banners on the buildings saying "no arms to Israel" and accusing the group of complicity in genocide.

They also clambered on top of a plane in the grounds of the company's headquarters.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto condemned the protest, saying on X that the students were "destroying and defacing" the offices where an "important meeting with the staff of the defense ministry" was taking place.

"These people must be treated for what they are, dangerous subversives. Criminals have no political color, they are just criminals," he said.

Crosetto said in March that Italy had continued to export arms to Israel, despite government assurances last year that it was blocking such sales following the Israeli army's campaign in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

In March the minister said only previously signed orders were being honored after checks had been made to ensure the weaponry would not be used against Gazan civilians.

Through its US subsidiary, Leonardo provides Israel with aircraft and owns an Israeli radar company called RADA.

Under Italian law, arms exports are banned to countries that are waging war and those deemed to be violating international human rights.