Seoul, Nov 26 || North Korea has cut power lines installed by South Korea to supply electricity to a now-shuttered joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, South Korea's military said, the latest in Pyongyang's move to sever inter-Korean ties.
The military has detected North Korean soldiers removing part of the power lines connecting transmission towers built along the Gyeongui road since Sunday, officials said, in what appeared to be preparations to demolish the transmission towers built by the South, news agency reported.
"The North has yet to work on the transmission towers, (North Korean soldiers) have piled up the severed high-voltage lines that fell on the ground," Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun told a regular press briefing.
Lee said North Korean troops have cut power lines connected to the first transmission tower located north of the military demarcation line, adding that further monitoring is needed.
South Korea built 48 transmission towers -- including 15 located in the North -- to supply electricity to the now-shuttered Kaesong Industrial Complex.
But power supply has been halted since June 2020, when the North blew up an inter-Korean liaison office at the complex after lashing out at Seoul for failing to stop North Korean defectors in South Korea from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.