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.



Death Toll in Attack on Germany Market Rises to 5, Scholz Calls for Solidarity

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
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Death Toll in Attack on Germany Market Rises to 5, Scholz Calls for Solidarity

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang

Germans on Saturday mourned the victims after a doctor drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others.

Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning.

He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers south of Magdeburg, officials said.

The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day.

Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg.

The chancellor called on the nation to stand together against hate.

Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.