North Korea blows up parts of inter-Korean roads in a symbolic display of anger

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In a symbolic display of anger, North Korea on Tuesday blew up the northern section of unused roads that once linked it with the South, with the rivals exchanging threats days after the North claimed that its rival flew drones over its capital Pyongyang.

The roads’ choreographed demolition underlines North Korea’s growing anger against South Korea’s conservative government. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of achieving peaceful Korean unification.

Observers say it’s unlikely Kim will launch a preemptive, large-scale attack on South Korea because of fear that an almost certain massive retaliation by the more superior forces of the United States and South Korea would threaten Pyongyang's survival.

In response to the explosions, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said its military fired within southern sections of the border as it bolstered its readiness and surveillance posture. The statement did not give details, but the move could have been an attempt to avert cross-border fire by North Korea. It wasn't immediately known whether North Korea responded.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea, separately condemned the North’s detonations as a “highly abnormal” and “regressive” measure that violates previous inter-Korean agreements.

Video provided by South Korea’s military showed a cloud of white and gray smoke emerging from the explosion at a road near the western border town of Kaesong. North Korean trucks and excavators could be seen clearing out debris. Another video showed smoke emerging from a coastal road near the eastern border.

North Korea has a history of staging the choreographed destruction of facilities on its own soil as a political message.

In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty, South Korean-built liaison office building just north of the border in retaliation for South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2018, North Korea demolished tunnels at its nuclear testing site at the start of nuclear diplomacy with the United States. In 2008, North Korea blew up a cooling tower at its main nuclear complex when earlier disarmament-for-aid negotiations with Washington and others were happening.

Destroying the roads, which were mainly built with South Korean money, would be in line with leader Kim Jong Un’s order in January to abandon the goal of peaceful Korean unification and formally designate South Korea as the country’s “invariable principal enemy." That order surprised many outside North Korea watchers because it seemed to break from his predecessors’ long-cherished dreams of peacefully unifying the Korean Peninsula on the North’s terms.

Experts say Kim likely aims to diminish South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and seek direct dealings with the United States. Kim may also hope to diminish South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule at home.

North Korea has accused South Korea of infiltrating drones to drop propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened to respond with force if it happened again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned that North Korea would face the end of its regime if the safety of South Korean citizens is threatened.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, said Tuesday that North Korea has secured unspecified clear evidence that South Korean “military gangsters” are behind the alleged drone flights. She warned that South Korea “will have to pay a dear price.”

North Korea's state media reported Tuesday that Kim Jong Un laid out unspecified tasks related to “immediate military action” and the operation of his war deterrent during a meeting Monday. North Korea's military earlier threatened to turn South Korea into “piles of ashes," saying its frontline army units were ready to open fire.

During a previous era of inter-Korean detente in the 2000s, the two Koreas reconnected two road routes and two rail tracks across their heavily fortified border. But their operations were suspended as the Koreas wrangled over North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues.

The South Korean Unification Ministry said the roads and the rail links were built with South Korean materials and equipment worth $132.9 million provided in the form of loans, and the North is still obligated to pay back the aid.

Last week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures. South Korean officials said North Korea had been adding anti-tank barriers and laying mines along the border since earlier this year. They said North Korea has also planted mines and removed lamps along its sections of the inter-Korean roads and taken out ties on the northern side of the railways.

In recent years North Korea has performed a run of provocative missile tests, and South Korea and the United States have expanded military drills and cooperation.

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A visitor walks by a map of two Koreas border area at the unification observatory in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A visitor uses binoculars to see the North Korean side from the unification observatory in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A visitor walks near a wire fence decorated with ribbons written with messages wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A visitor walks near a wire fence decorated with ribbons written with messages wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A visitor walks by a map of railroad and road between two Koreas cities, South's Munsan and North's Kaesong, at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. The sign on the screen reads, "North-South Gyeongui and Donghae roads line connection section." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. The sign on the screen reads, "North-South Gyeongui and Donghae roads line connection section." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. The sign on the screen reads, "North-South Gyeongui and Donghae roads line connection section." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean visitors look at a map which shows a border area of two Koreas with a railroad line between Munsan city in south and Kaesong in north, at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A North Korean soldier stands guard at the North's military guard post as a North Korean flag flutters in the wind, as seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge turned to the Bleacher Creatures during their first-inning Roll Call at the New York Yankees' home opener Friday, bent a knee and flexed with both arms in honor of Brett Gardner.

“Still hoping he gets a chance to come back here and share his knowledge with the boys a little bit,” Judge said after his go-ahead, two-run homer in the first inning started the Yankees to an 8-2 win over the Miami Marlins. “He was a big part of this team, his long tenure here as a Yankee, so I always like paying him a little credit. He's tuned into the game and watching.”

Gardner spent his entire big league career with the Yankees from 2008-21, and Judge made his major league debut with New York in 2016. Judge started flexing for Roll Call when playing center field, Gardner's old position. Judge roomed with Gardner in 2017.

“He was a leader. He was a professional. He was a prankster. He was everything that you look for in a guy to lead the team,” Judge said, speaking slowly and choosing his words carefully. “He took me in at a young age when I first got here and he treated me just like everybody else and showed me respect. He taught me a lot of things. It kind of teaches you how to lead a clubhouse. He had a big influence on me not only on the field but inside this clubhouse, just the way he played the game and the way he held everybody to a standard. Very few guys are made like Brett Gardner.”

Gardner has been in the Yankees' thoughts even more since March 2024, when his youngest son died at age 14 during a family vacation in Costa Rica. Authorities determined carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death.

Judge, the team captain, wanted the Yankees to arrive in style after opening 5-1 on their West Coast trip.

“That's Cap, again, setting the tone,” said Ben Rice, who homered and drove in three runs. “Sent us a text late last night saying: `Hey, suits tomorrow.' So everybody was fired up and we were happy to continue that momentum out on the field.”

Trent Grisham reached leading off with the first of 11 walks by Marlins pitchers and Judge drove a slider into the left-field seats against Eury Pérez for a 2-1 lead.

Judge, who had three RBIs, hit a record 20 first-inning home runs last year, when he finished with 53. Three of Judge’s five hits this season have been home runs.

Coming off his third AL MVP award and first batting title, Judge is off to a slow start with a .185 average.

He gave his teammates a scare in the second inning when he was hit below the right wrist by a 98.9 mph fastball from Pérez, one pitch after Grisham's bases-loaded walk.

“I’ve broken my wrist like that, so that’s always the main concern,” Judge said.

Judge missed 45 games after he was hit by a pitch from Kansas City’s Jakob Junis on July 26, 2018.

“Felt like he was probably OK but I tend to jump up a little quicker when it’s to him," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge (99) hits a two-run home run during the first inning of the Yankees' home-opener baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Friday, April 3, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) walks back to dugout during the fifth inning of a home-opener baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Friday, April 3, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge (99) successfully steals second base during the eighth inning of a home-opener baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Friday, April 3, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Yankees outfielders Cody Bellinger (35), Trent Grisham (12) and Aaron Judge (99) embrace each other after wining a home-opener baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Friday, April 3, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge (99) celebrates after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning of the Yankees' home-opener baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Friday, April 3, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)