[Anchor]
North Korea has sent a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council claiming that the recent landmine explosion on the western front was a staged provocation by South Korea. The North appears to be cutting ties with the South while launching an international public opinion campaign.
Kim Ayeong reports.
[Reporter]
In the middle of the New Yalu River Bridge, the national flags of North Korea and China flap in the wind.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Wang Huning, the fourth-ranked official in China's leadership and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), walk together.
The leadership of North Korea and China staged a scene of walking together across the four-lane bridge that opened between Sinuiju, North Korea, and Dandong, China, on October 15.
North Korea, which newly forged a blood alliance with Russia by deploying troops to the war in Ukraine, also opened a road bridge over the Tumen River with Russia in September.
In contrast to its accelerating ties with China and Russia, North Korea is further solidifying its separation from the South.
Back during the 2007 inter-Korean summit, then-President Roh Moo-hyun crossed the Military Demarcation Line on foot to visit Pyongyang by land, and the Gyeongui and Donghae rail and road links were connected, but the North has now severed all of them.
[Koh Yu-hwan / Professor Emeritus at Dongguk University: "They are symbolically blocking off the South while demonstrating that they have China and Russia. They are essentially saying, 'Watch us, as we can also strengthen mutual solidarity whenever necessary...'"]
While declaring its determination to push ahead with so-called border fortification work to cut off the two Koreas, North Korea has also fired back with an international public opinion campaign over the landmine explosion.
Pyongyang revealed that on Sunday (October 25), it sent a letter to the president of the UN Security Council claiming that the landmine explosion was merely a staged act by South Korea intended to delay its border operations.
[Yoon Min-ho / Unification Ministry Spokesperson: "(They appear to be) attempting to justify their so-called border fortification work by reiterating their existing position regarding the DMZ landmine explosion."]
While the South Korean government has positioned itself as a pacemaker for potential dialogue between North Korea and the United States, its room for maneuver is increasingly narrowing amid mounting tensions over the landmine incident and deepening trilateral ties among North Korea, China, and Russia.
(Video by Cho Chun-dong | Video Editing by Oh Young-taek)
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