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By John Feng
China Editor
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North Korea is taking steps to "completely separate" its territory from the South by cutting off all road and rail links and building fortifications in their place, Kim Jong Un's regime said on Wednesday.
The General Staff of the Korean People's Army said the move was a "response to the grave situation in which the imminent danger of war is escalating day by day along the southern border," according to a statement in multiple languages carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea said it would fortify its side of the de facto border with "strong defense structures," without elaborating. A "telephone message" communicating its intentions was sent to U.S. forces "to prevent any misjudgment and accidental conflict over the fortification project," the army said.
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Kim declared South Korea a hostile state last year, shifting away from a decades-long "special relationship" in which the old Cold War foes together sought reconciliation and eventual unification. This week, the North Korean leader twice threatened to use nuclear weapons on the South if provoked.
The two Koreas share few border crossings apart from the roads and railway tracks of the western Gyeongui line and the eastern Donghae line, both near the coast. The South Korean defense ministry said the latest announcement likely was a continuation of the North's efforts to severe inter-Korean connections—physical and symbolic—since April.
Various "war exercises for aggression" staged by South Korea and the United States, including the deployment of American "strategic nuclear assets" to the region, "proves the gravity of the situation that can never be overlooked," the North Korean army said. An English-language translation carried by KCNA described the situation on the Korean Peninsula as "touch-and-go."
"For our army to permanently shut off and block the southern border with the ROK, the primary hostile state and invariable principal enemy, in the current situation is a self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security of the DPRK," the statement said, referring to the Republic of Korea in the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north.
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Seoul said it had yet to detect any construction work by Pyongyang's troops near the Demilitarized Zone, which has been heavily mined by North Korean soldiers in recent months. It said South Korean forces would "overwhelmingly punish" any provocation by the North.
The North Korean notification was sent via an existing channel to the U.S.-led United Nations Command, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday, citing military sources. Pyongyang said its DMZ fortification project would involve a large number of personnel, heavy equipment and "explosive work," the report said.
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The U.S. State Department and the 28,000-strong U.S. Forces Korea did not immediately respond to separate requests seeking comment.
Beijing, Pyongyang's only formal treaty ally, responded on Wednesday with another call for restraint.
"China believes that upholding peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and advancing the political settlement process of the Korean Peninsula issue serves the common interests of all parties and it is what the international community expects," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press conference.
"All parties need to work together for this end," Mao said.
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