Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—

The North Korean army said it would take the “significant military step” on Wednesday and completely cut off its territory from South Korea after months of fortifying its heavily armed border.

The announcement, which came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un abandoned his longstanding policy of peaceful reunification with South Korea earlier this year, declared that remaining roads and railways with the South would be completely cut, blocking access along the border .

“The acute military situation on the Korean Peninsula requires the DPRK armed forces to take more decisive and stronger measures to more credibly defend national security,” the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) said. to a statement from the state news agency KCNA in which North Korea was referred to by the first letters of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Since January, Pyongyang has strengthened its border defenses, laid landmines, set up tank traps and removed railway infrastructure, according to the South Korean military.

Kim has also escalated his heated rhetoric against the South, calling it the North's “main enemy and constant main enemy,” a description also echoed in the recent KPA statement.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the measures were in response to recent “war exercises” in South Korea and visits to what it said were strategic U.S. nuclear facilities in the region. Last year, a U.S. aircraft carrier, amphibious assault ships, long-range bombers and submarines visited South Korea, drawing angry rebukes from Pyongyang.

In a response on Wednesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea's announcement was “a desperate measure stemming from the insecurity of the failed Kim Jong Un regime” and “would only lead to (its) harsher isolation.”

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said North Korea's latest move formalizes work already done along its militarized border and suggested that Pyongyang may seek constitutionalization in the future.

“If North Korea were to introduce a new territorial clause through a constitutional amendment and sever its relations with the South, the internal and external repercussions would be enormous,” Hong told CNN, suggesting that Pyongyang is taking small steps in that direction.

Inter-Korean hostilities have eased this year as North Korea appears to have stepped up its nuclear production efforts and strengthened ties with Russia, adding to widespread concerns in the West about the isolated country's future development.

Last week, Kim threatened to use nuclear weapons to destroy South Korea in the event of an attack after the South Korean president warned that North Korea would “face the end of its regime” if it used nuclear weapons.

Kim's comments appeared to be a direct response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol unveiling Seoul's most powerful ballistic missile and other weapons to deter North Korean threats at an Armed Forces Day parade on Oct. 1.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said the Korean army's announcement could be Pyongyang's attempt to “shift blame for its economic failures and legitimize its costly buildup of missiles and nuclear weapons” by addressing external threats exaggerates.

“Kim Jong Un wants domestic and international audiences to believe he is acting out of military strength, but he may actually be motivated by political weakness,” Easley said. “North Korea’s threats, both real and rhetorical, reflect the regime’s survival strategy of a hereditary dictatorship.”

North and South Korea have been separated by an armistice agreement since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Technically the two sides are still at war, but both governments had long aspired to the goal of one day reunification.

In January, Kim said North Korea would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, describing inter-Korean relations as “a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents at war,” KCNA reported at the time.

In its statement, the North Korean army said it notified U.S. forces on Wednesday morning to “prevent any miscalculation and accidental conflict” over its “fortification project.”

The United Nations Command – a multinational military force tasked with securing the heavily fortified DMZ between the two Koreas – confirmed it had been contacted by the North Korean army but said it was reviewing the specific content of the messages “out of consideration.” “on the integrity” do not discuss the hotline.”