Aftermath of the Korean War

North Korea will halt all road and rail connections with South Korea starting Wednesday in an effort to "completely separate" the two nations. The North's military announced plans to "permanently shut off and block the southern border" while reinforcing positions on its side of the boundary.

A North Korean military guard post is seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Tuesday, June 18, 2024.

Dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border with the South on Tuesday and retreated after warning shots were fired, Seoul's military said, adding landmine explosions had injured Pyongyang's troops in the area.

South Korean troops fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border this week, Seoul's military said Tuesday, with tensions high over Pyongyang's barrage of trash-carrying balloons and the South's retaliatory loudspeaker campaign.

China's vice foreign minister met with North Korea's top diplomats in Pyongyang on Friday, state media said, as the nuclear-armed state has accelerated its weapons testing and threats toward Seoul in recent months.

China's vice foreign minister was in Pyongyang on Friday for a meeting with his North Korean counterpart.

China and Russia are North Korea's traditional allies, and Washington warned last year that military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow were "growing and dangerous".

The United States has called on Beijing — the North's biggest economic benefactor — to restrain Pyongyang.

North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state.

Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.

Barely two weeks into 2024, tensions on the Korean Peninsula are rapidly escalating, as IFIMES Institute was periodically writing.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has escalated tensions with South Korea, branding it as the nation's "main enemy" and issuing a stark warning of obliteration if provoked.

A US soldier under disciplinary action has fled to North Korea across the border with South Korea, Reuters reported, citing US officials.

North Korea was silent about the highly unusual entry of an American soldier across the Koreas' heavily fortified border although it test-fired short-range missiles Wednesday in its latest weapons display.