The North Korean Army has informed the US of plans to fortify the shared border with the South to avoid “misunderstandings” and any “unnecessary clash,” according to Pyongyang’s state news agency.

The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said it would completely cut off roads and railways connecting to South Korea and build fortifications along its side of the border, in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday.

The KPA said it communicated to the US military at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday about construction work in the border area that would begin the same day.

This announcement builds on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s "two Koreas" speech to the North's parliament in January that marked a departure from decades of the regime’s commitment to unify the Korean Peninsula.

“What this means is that North Korea is turning the demarcation line into a border separating two countries,” Rep. Park Sun-won, former deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, told The Korea Herald.

“Not only is this a deviation from our mutual pursuit of reunification that is rooted in history, this also amounts to a violation of the armistice agreement, which states that neither North nor South Korean troops are allowed inside the Demilitarized Zone,” he said.

“If they want to set up a border along the demarcation line, they would first need to replace the armistice with a peace treaty. We have not had that kind of discussion.”

Park said the border construction was a political move consolidating Kim’s characterization of relations with South Korea as separate countries. “North Korea likely told the US-led United Nations Command that oversees the Demilitarized Zone, so as not to be misunderstood as a military provocation,” he said.

He called on South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and the presidential office to disclose how soon they were in touch with the UN Command about the North Korean plans.

North Korea communicating directly with the US about its intentions is a highly unusual move that seeks to sow a rift between the US and South Korea, according to Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

“The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff is in charge of issues concerning the demarcation line in peacetime,” he told The Korea Herald.

“North Korea has suspended communication channels with the US military since 2020. By notifying the US or the UN Command rather than the South Korean military, the North is placing the blame on South Korea and that it does not want conflict with the US.”

Also on Wednesday, North Korea once again tested its upgraded 240 mm rocket launcher system that is capable of reaching Seoul, in another sign of its imminent deployment.

South Korea's spy agency said in August that the new missile launchers that North Korea has installed near the border may be capable of reaching as far as provinces south of Seoul.