North Korea to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's army said on Wednesday it was moving to "permanently shut off and block the southern border" with the South and had informed the US military to prevent an accidental clash.

Pyongyang said in a statement it would "cut off roads and railways" that might have made travel between the two Koreas possible.

However, it was largely a symbolic gesture because cross-border exchanges and travel between North and South Korea have been halted for years.

Inter-Korean relations are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang closing agencies dedicated to reunification and declaring South Korea its "principal enemy".

Some analysts thought the announcement could be a potential first step towards more serious action, such as amending the North's constitution to declare a new maritime border south of the current de facto line.

The nuclear-armed North had been expected to scrap a landmark inter-Korean agreement signed in 1991 at a key parliamentary meeting that ended on Tuesday, part of leader Kim Jong Un's drive to officially define the South as an enemy state.

However, state media made no mention of such action in a report on Wednesday announcing a new defence chief.

The army said hours later it planned "a substantial military step" that would "completely cut off roads and railways connected to the ROK (South Korea) and fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defence structures".

It said it had sent a telephone message to US forces to "prevent any misjudgement and accidental conflict".

The border between the two Koreas is one of the most heavily militarised in the world, although it failed to prevent a North Korean from crossing to the South in August.

Seoul said in July that Pyongyang had spent months laying landmines and erecting barriers, turning the area into a wasteland.

The South Korean military said a month earlier North Korean soldiers had suffered "multiple casualties" from landmine explosions in the area.

Seoul's spy agency also said in June it had detected signs that North Korea was demolishing sections of a railway line connecting the two Koreas.

That demolition was "seemingly with the intention of completely