[News Today] NK CUTS POWER LINES NEAR BORDER

[LEAD]
It has been found that North Korean forces are dismantling a power transmission tower on the Gyeongui Line. This was previously installed by South Korea to supply electricity to the Kaeseong Industrial Complex. Following the destruction of the Gyeongui and Donghae lines, North Korea continues to sever connections with South Korea.

[REPORT]
Several North Korean soldiers climb a power transmission tower installed on the northern side of the Gyeongui Line road.

Not wearing any safety gear, they cut off high-voltage power lines with their bare hands.

The scene was captured by the South Korean military's surveillance assets last Sunday.
The power lines were cut on the first transmission tower from the northern side of the Military Demarcation Line.

Lee Sung-jun / S. Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff
Six high-voltage, two support lines were cut on the first transmission tower north of the MDL.

A total of 48 transmission towers were installed along the Gyeongui Line between Munsan and Pyeonghwa Substation in 2006 to supply power to the Kaeseong Industrial Complex.

Fifteen of them are located in the North. They are all South Korean assets built by the Korea Electric Power Corporation.

Power has not been supplied since the North blew up the inter-Korean liason office in 2020. By cutting the power lines, the North apparently wanted to demonstrate its ongoing measures to sever ties with the South.

The South Korean military is watching if the North will remove the transmission towers altogether.

The unification ministry has vowed a stern response and is demanding Pyongyang halt its illegal acts of property rights violation.

It's been confirmed recently that North Korea has installed more barbed wire fences near Arrowhead Hill on the central front.

It has also erected 11 meter-tall walls and hills and dug out pits in front of them in the area where Gyeongui Line and Donghae line roads and railway tracks were blown up.

The South Korean military says it is watching the situation, as the latest measures also seek to prevent tank
movements and defections by North Korean residents and soldiers.