South Korea fires warning shots after North Korea blows up border roads
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(SEOUL) — South Korea’s military said Tuesday it detected explosions on two cross-border roads connecting the country to North Korea, amid a significant recent deterioration in inter-Korean relations.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that North Korean forces detonated explosives on the Gyeongui Line and Donghae Line, “presumably to block connection roads.”
North Korean forces also deployed “heavy equipment” for “further operations,” the JCS said.
There was no damage to South Korean forces, it added.
“Our military has fired warning shots in areas south of the Military Demarcation Line,” the JCS statement said.
“The military is closely monitoring North Korean activities and has reinforced surveillance and alert posture in cooperation with the U.S., maintaining a state of full readiness,” the JCS said.
Seoul warned on Monday that Pyongyang appeared to be preparing to destroy the roadways.
“The North Korean military has been carrying out activities assumed to be linked to explosions on the roads along the Gyeongui and Donghae lines,” JCS spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun said.
“If North Korea undertakes a provocation, we will strongly retaliate in terms of our right to self defense,” he added.
The North Korean military said last week that it would permanently seal off its border with its southern neighbor, cutting rail and road connections and reinforcing defensive fortifications.
The Gyeongui line connects the western South Korean city of Paju to North Korea’s city of Kaesong, while the Donghae line runs along the east coast. North Korea has spent months laying mines, removing lights and dismantling buildings along the two routes, Seoul said.
Pyongyang said it communicated its intentions to U.S. forces in South Korea to “prevent any misjudgment and accidental conflict over the fortification project.”
Tuesday’s explosions followed almost a year of rising cross-border tensions, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un having declared the two nations as “hostile states” in December 2023.
North Korea has sent thousands of “trash balloons” into South Korea since May, according to tallies released by the JCS.
South Korean civic groups also send balloons into North Korean territory, often carrying rice, essential medicine and leaflets critical of the regime in Pyongyang. North Korea has repeatedly protested such action and threatened a response.
Last week, North Korea accused South Korea of flying drones over Pyongyang and ordered eight artillery brigades to be ready to open fire across the border, according to state media.
Seoul’s Defense Ministry warned that Pyongyang will see “the end of its regime” if it causes any harm to South Koreans.
(HONG KONG and LONDON) — The Chinese military test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific on Wednesday, marking the first known launch of an ICBM in decades, officials said.
The People’s Liberation Army launched the ICBM carrying a “dummy warhead” into the “high seas” at about 8:44 in the morning, the Chinese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The missile splashed down into the area where they had planned for it to fall, the ministry said. Local media reported that the launch was the first such test since 1980.
“This test launch is a routine arrangement in our annual training plan,” the ministry said. “It is in line with international law and international practice and is not directed against any country or target.”
China’s official Xinhua news agency said “relevant countries” had been notified in advance. But Japanese officials weren’t notified prior to the launch, the country’s chief cabinet secretary told reporters on Wednesday afternoon in Tokyo.
“There was no notification beforehand and, according to the comprehensive analysis, we have been confirmed that it flew over our territory and there was no damage recorded,” Hayashi Yoshimasa said, according to an official translation.
The Chinese military’s Rocket Force has been under some domestic scrutiny over the past year, after some top generals were purged last summer over alleged corruption related to equipment procurement. The test-firing may be viewed internationally as a signal of the military’s readiness, despite those purges, which saw two former defense ministers expelled from the Communist Party.
The test launch comes days before Beijing is set to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the PRC on Oct. 1.
The test-fire also comes as the U.N. General Assembly meets in New York, where U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on Tuesday of his efforts to build a strong trilateral relationship with Japan and South Korea. Those relationships have been part of Biden’s strategy to counter China’s influence in the region.
“These partnerships are not against any nation,” Biden said on Tuesday. “They’re building blocks for a free, open, secure, peaceful Indo-Pacific.”
The United States in April said it had deployed mid-range missiles to Philippines. And Yoshimasa of Japan said on Wednesday that China’s defense budget had been increasing rapidly “without any visibility,” adding that China has been expanding their presence near Japanese territory “with a lack of transparency” about their movement.
“This is a very serious concern for Japan and the international society,” Yoshimasa said.
Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on September 17, 2024. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least 14 more people were killed and 450 injured in Lebanon on Wednesday after a series of new explosions of wireless devices rocked the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to the Ministry of Health and the Lebanese Red Cross.
More than 30 ambulances are providing treatment and evacuations to wounded people in Lebanon on Wednesday, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
The Lebanese Army command has asked citizens not to gather in places witnessing security incidents to allow medical teams to arrive.
Members of the Lebanese Civil Defense are working to extinguish fires that broke out inside homes, cars and shops in the Bekaa, the South, Mount Lebanon and the southern suburbs due to the explosions, officials said.
All walkie-talkie devices were taken from security services members at the Rafiq Harir International Airport in Beirut after news of the devices exploding.
Pagers explode across Lebanon on Tuesday
At least 12 civilians were killed and at least 2,800 people injured in the explosions that took place Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities. Around 460 of the injuries were critical and required surgery, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said. Most victims are suffering from eye and facial injuries, while others suffered injuries to hands and fingers, he said.
Israel was behind the deadly explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.
The Hezbollah militant group said it is conducting a “security and scientific investigation” into the explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday.
Hezbollah said 11 of its members were killed on Tuesday, though — as is typical in its statements — did not specify how they died.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians and led to the deaths of a number of martyrs and the injury of a large number with various wounds,” Hezbollah said of the pager explosions in a Tuesday statement.
In a Wednesday morning statement, Hezbollah said it would continue operations to “support Gaza,” and vowed a “reckoning” for Israel for the “massacre on Tuesday.”
The dead and injured included people who are not members of Hezbollah. Lebanese officials said that an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy are among the dead.
Israel has not commented on explosions
Israel has not commented on its alleged involvement in the apparent attack, which prompted chaos in the capital Beirut and elsewhere in Hezbollah’s south Lebanon heartland.
Around 100 hospitals received wounded people, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said, with hospitals in Beirut and its southern suburb quickly filling to capacity. Patients were then directed to other hospitals outside the region.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who had one of the pagers and was injured in an explosion Tuesday, according to Iranian state TV. The diplomat said in a phone call that he was “feeling well and fully conscious,” according to Iranian state TV.
“I am proud and honored that my blood has become one with the blood of the honorable Lebanese people, as a result of the horrific terrorist crime that targeted our brotherly Lebanon yesterday. This noble country has stood with dignity and pride since the first day of al-Aqsa Storm,” Amani said Wednesday.
At least 14 people were also injured in targeted attacks on Hezbollah members in Syria, according to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Fears grow of Israel-Hezbollah escalation
The alleged Israeli operation has again piqued fears of escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict ongoing since Oct. 8, when members of the Iranian-backed group began cross-border attacks in support of Hamas’ war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Frontier skirmishes, Israeli strikes and Hezbollah rocket and artillery salvoes have been near-constant through 11 months of war in Gaza. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to launch a new military operation against Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in border regions due to the fighting.
The Israel Defense Forces said warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in six locations in southern Lebanon overnight into Wednesday. Artillery strikes were also conducted, it added.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to make a public address on Thursday afternoon to address the situation. In February, Nasrallah urged members to stop using their cellphones, describing the technology as “a deadly agent.”
Schools across Lebanon will be closed on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported, citing the country’s Minister of Education. Schools and offices closed include public and private schools, high schools, technical institutes, the Lebanese University and private higher education institutions, Lebanese state media reported.
The Lebanese Council of Ministers collectively condemned “this criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards.”
It added that “the government immediately began making all necessary contacts with the countries concerned and the United Nations to place it before its responsibilities regarding this continuing crime.”
World reacts to pager attacks
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon condemned the attack on Lebanon, calling it an “extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context,” in a statement released by the U.N. Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Egypt on Wednesday that the U.S. “did not know about and was not involved” in Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon and Syria — but said that officials were still gathering information and did not directly blame Israel.
“Broadly speaking, we’ve been very clear, and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we’re trying to resolve in Gaza,” Blinken said. Its spread to other fronts, he added, is “clearly not in the interest of anyone involved.”
A cease-fire deal in Gaza, Blinken added, would “materially improve the prospects of defusing the situation” on the Israeli-Lebanese border and allow thousands of people living near the area on both sides of the divide to return home.
The U.S. and the European Union have both designated the Hezbollah militant group a foreign terrorist organization.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, Ghazi Balkiz, Morgan Winsor, Anne Flaherty, Nasser Atta, Joe Simonetti, Jordana Miller and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — On the streets of Alfafar on Wednesday, cars and caravans were strewn like toys in the muddy aftermath of the floodwater that had rushed through the Spanish town.
Emergency crews descended on Wednesday on that town and others surrounding Valencia, wading through washed-out neighborhoods, searching homes and looking for missing people following devastating flooding, according to emergency officials.
More than 1,000 troops had been deployed to the province to help with the emergency response, the Military Emergencies Unit, a branch of the Spanish military, said on social media on Wednesday.
The flash floods were caused by heavy rain, which by Wednesday morning had begun “easing off,” according to the country’s meteorological agency
“[B]ut there is still an orange warning in inland Castellón until 2:00 p.m.,” the agency said. “Caution in the northeast of the peninsula and western Andalusia: very heavy showers are possible. Stay informed!”
For some, the flood water arrived quickly and almost without warning.
Kewin Jacek Ryfa Stelmach told ABC News he was out to dinner with his wife on Tuesday in Alfafar when they noticed the water beginning to rise. He said he got up to move his car to a spot near the entrance of the restaurant.
“I saw the water was already entering the restaurant, so my wife and I ran to the car,” he said. “We started to drive not knowing which direction to take.”
As they drove, they became boxed in by other vehicles that had been stopped by the flooding, he said.
“For a moment I thought I was going to get trapped, since there were many cars and no one was moving,” he said. “We managed to cross a tunnel that was still dry. I managed to save myself and save the car. I saw a lot of people who couldn’t move forwards in their cars, others were broken down, and others abandoned them.”
In that town’s shopping district, some people had been trapped in an IKEA store as the surrounding area flooded, according to videos verified by ABC News.
And Ryfa Stelmach’s bother, Oskar, told ABC News his car became trapped in rising waters in the town, forcing him to flee with his partner on foot.
“The water reached our waists,” Oskar said. “We took a lady having an anxiety attack out of her car and headed to Sedavi Bridge.”
They waited until the floodwaters receded at 5 a.m. before walking towards Valencia, he said.
The regional emergency services of Valencia estimated that 62 people were dead in the wake of the flooding that took over the southeast of Spain after Tuesday’s storms.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
