Suspicious border activities in N. Korea suggest growing instability amid elite defections

By Im Yoon-seo Posted : July 23, 2024, 09:24 Updated : July 31, 2024, 08:18
 
Satellite images from Planet Labs, taken in June 2023 and approximately a year later, show new structures along the border between the two Koreas.
SEOUL, July 23 (AJU PRESS) - North Korea has been building walls and digging holes along the border with South Korea, recent satellite images suggest. 

An analysis of satellite photos from American earth-imaging company Planet Labs shows newly-elected structures resembling walls along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), an area already heavily-fortified with landmines and high fences. Construction of these structures seemed to have started early this year, as they were not seen until at least the end of last year. 

According to a news report by the BBC late last month, it is unclear when the construction began "due to a lack of previous high-resolution imagery in the area. However, these structures were not visible in an image captured in November 2023." The British broadcaster quoted Ramon Pacheco Pardo, head of European and International Studies at Kings College London, as saying "North Korea doesn't really need more barriers to prevent a strike from the South but by erecting these border barriers, the North is signaling that it doesn't seek reunification."

But it still remains uncertain what North Korea's intentions are and whether these "unusual" activities indicate a larger project to construct an extensive wall with miles of barbed wire along the border.
 
North Korean soldiers carry out construction work along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on June 18, 2024. Yonhap
Since early last month signs of construction work have been spotted with dozens of North Korean soldiers engaging in unspecified activities in the border area. It appeared they were laying mines, reinforcing roads, and conducting various other operations. On June 9, some of them briefly crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that bisects the two Koreas, and they hurriedly returned to the northern side after the South Korean military fired warning shots. A week later, a similar incident occurred again, only followed by another intrusion. At the time, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) assessed that they were accidental incidents rather than deliberate provocations.

These border intrusions along with the ongoing border construction came amid heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula, after North Korea launched a bizarre campaign of sending hundreds of trash-filled balloons into the South, prompting the South to resume propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers across the border in a tit-for-tat action.

Tensions further escalated late last month when North Korea leader Kim Jong-un forged a military pact with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after their summit in Pyongyang, raising concerns that the two isolated countries could further deepen their military cooperation as they vowed to provide mutual assistance in case of aggression against either of them.

But these developments were anticipated since December last year when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared in a year-end politburo meeting that reunification between the two Koreas is "impossible." It was a broad hint that North Korea no longer considers the South as its "brethren" to be united with.
 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks at a meeting in Pyongyang on Jan. 15, 2024, in this photo released by the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency.
As a follow-up measure, the renegade country's rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly amended its constitution early this year to define South Korea as the "No. 1 hostile state," scrapping all agreements with South Korea on promoting economic cooperation including tourism projects to North Korea's scenic Mt. Kumgang.

Kim then abolished a couple of agencies in charge of overseeing inter-Korean cooperation such as the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification and the National Economic Cooperation Bureau. He also ordered to remove anything related to reunification between the two Koreas.

Han Ki-ho, a professor from AJOU Institute of Unification interpreted these series of moves against the South as largely "symbolic."

"Since most defectors escape through the border with China, North Korea's recent construction of walls along the DMZ would not be effective in stopping them," he said in an interview with Aju Press last week. "It's more likely part of a broader strategy to seal off its people" from the outside world while tightening internal surveillance to discourage them from harboring thoughts of defections or deter any hope for reunification.
 
This combined image, grabbed from the state-run Korean Central Television in September 2021 and July 2024, shows an altered map of the Korean Peninsula on a wall at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang.
North Korea has indeed started phasing out statues and symbols associated with reunification. For example, a video clip released early this month by Korean Central Television (KCTV) provides evidence of North Korea's changing stance toward the South. The footage, which shows a memorial service commemorating the 30th anniversary of regime founder Kim Il-sung's death, revealed an alteration to the map of the Korean Peninsula engraved on a wall at Kim Il-sung Square. The map now shows only the North Korean side of territory, omitting the South Korean part.

North Korea's flagship airline Air Koryo has also changed its logo in line with sweeping changes in its stance on South Korea. Its previous logo, depicting a flying crane with a wing loosely shaped like the Korean Peninsula, has now been replaced with a new insignia featuring a more tapered wing, apparently to eradicate any remnants of the Korean Peninsula.

Despite such attempts to bolster internal unity by disparaging the South and phasing out anything related to reunification between the two Koreas, while suppressing its people from the outside world amid growing instability and public dissent, the North Korean regime seems no longer able to control the influx of external information seeping into its country.

Last week, it was belatedly revealed that a high-ranking North Korean diplomat stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea last year. Additionally, there are reports of a couple of other defections by high-ranking officials pending.

Tightened border controls and crackdowns along the border and major escape routes have made defections difficult, resulting in only 196 defectors last year, a slight uptick from 67 in 2022 in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic but a significant drop from 1,019 in 2019. These developments have led to an increase in defections among the elite and other expatriates, who may find it easier to escape while abroad.

"It is unlikely to see mass defections like those witnessed during the North Korean famine in the 1990s," said Lee Woo-young at the University of North Korean Studies. "There are now over 30,000 North Korean defectors who have settled in South Korea, so many ordinary North Koreans would be aware that living here can also be difficult," he said, explaining the recent rise in defections among high-ranking diplomats.

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