Seoul: North Korea has informed the US-led UN Command of its plans to build fortifications inside the border between the two Koreas, marking the first notification of its kind in more than six months, Yonhap News Agency reported Monday, citing Seoul's Defense Ministry. The North notified the multinational command tasked with monitoring inter-Korean border activities last week that it would resume construction of barriers and barbed wire fences on its side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), it said.
According to Kuwait News Agency, since April last year, North Korea has deployed troops near the military demarcation line within the DMZ to plant mines, erect anti-tank barriers, and reinforce barbed wire fences after the country's leader Kim Jong-un described inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other" in late 2023. Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was quoted as saying in a briefing, "Our military is closely monitoring North Korean military activities and will respond in accordance with principles if they violate the MDL."
The ministry mentioned that the North's notification could be seen as a "meaningful" message to ease inter-Korean tensions following the launch of the President Lee Jae Myung administration in Seoul this month, which has vowed to mend bilateral ties, but noted it was too soon to make a judgment. Meanwhile, the UN Command stated that the North's delivering prior notifications in general is "useful" to mitigate the risk of misinterpretation and miscalculation.