South Korea’s military today fired warning shots south of the demilitarized zone that separates South Korea from North Korea, reacting to North Korea’s move to blow up parts of the Korean Peninsula’s road and rail network near the border line, according to the South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, as reported by Reuters.

“North Korea blew up parts of Gyeonggi and Donghae streets north of the military demarcation line,” the South Korean military’s general staff said, using official terminology for the border between the two Korean states.

In response, South Korean forces launched “retaliatory fire” on its soil, he added without elaborating.

Watch the moment of detonation

Around noon, some sections of the road network north of the military demarcation line separating the two countries were blown up, South Korea’s Joint Military Staff said in a message to media.

The North Korean military had confirmed on October 9 that it would “finally” cut the highly symbolic road and rail axes connecting the two countries and build “strong defense structures” along the border.

According to the South Korean staff, North Korea had already laid mines and dams along the border and today was carrying out additional work with heavy equipment.

For their part, South Korea’s armed forces have stepped up their surveillance and preparedness, reacting to North Korea’s actions.

In practice, the border between the two Korean states is already completely closed. Since the end of the war in 1953, the two inter-Korean roads and the two inter-Korean railway lines have not reopened except during brief periods of recession.

The destruction of these disused roads is a new manifestation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s hardening policy towards South Korea, which he has said is his country’s “main enemy”.

According to North Korean state media, Kim Jong Un presided over a meeting of the country’s highest-ranking military officials on Monday and laid out the lines for possible “direct military action”.

The meeting came as the North Korean regime protested drone overflights that it said dropped propaganda leaflets full of “inflammatory rumors and nonsense” on the capital and accused Seoul of being responsible.

Pyongyang warned yesterday, Sunday, that sending another drone would be considered a “declaration of war”.