SEOUL, July 11. /TASS/. North Korean authorities have expanded works to dismantle railways in the south of the country near the border with South Korea, the Yonhap agency reported with reference to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Korea.
Earlier, signs of such work were noticed in the southeast of the DPRK.
Now, the South Korean military reports that the DPRK is dismantling rails and ties on a railway in the southwest of the country.
"The military has detected the North removing ties and rails on the northern side of the Gyeongui line that connects the military demarcation line to the North Korean border city of Kaesong since late June, according to the ministry," the agency reported.
In early June, the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported citing a source in the National Intelligence Service of the Republic, that the DPRK authorities began dismantling railroad ties in the southeast of the country. According to the newspaper, North Korea dismantled ties in the border area on the road running along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. This path was paved in 2006 as part of the implementation of the decisions of the Joint Declaration of the DPRK and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Korea adopted at the 2000 inter-Korean summit.
Seoul views Pyongyang's actions as a symbolic demonstration that rail transport will no longer connect the two Korean states. At the end of last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un announced the severance of ties with the Republic of Korea. Since then, North Korea has mined two roads leading to the South Korean cities of Paju and Donghae and removed lamp posts there.