North Korea vow to permanently close its border with South Korea

Although North Korea did not announce an anticipated constitutional revision to formally designate South Korea as its principal enemy and codify new national borders, it announced on Wednesday that it would permanently block its border with South Korea and strengthen its front-line defense posture to deal with “confrontational hysteria” by South Korean and US forces.

The actions were probably a form of pressure, but since cross-border travel and interactions have been prohibited for years, it is unclear how they will impact relations with South Korea.

According to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the military stated Wednesday it will “fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defense structures” and “completely cut off roads and railways” connected to South Korea.

The North’s military called its steps a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security” of North Korea. It said that “the hostile forces are getting ever more reckless in their confrontational hysteria.” It cited what it called various war exercises in South Korea, the deployment of US strategic assets and its rivals’ harsh rhetoric.

South Korean officials earlier said North Korea had already been adding anti-tank barriers and reinforcing roads on its side of the border since April in a likely attempt to boost its front-line security posture and prevent its soldiers and citizens from defecting to South Korea.

KCNA earlier Wednesday said the Supreme People’s Assembly met for two days this week to amend the legal ages of North Koreans for working and participating in elections. But it didn’t say whether the meeting dealt with leader Kim Jong Un’s order in January to rewrite the constitution to remove the goal of peaceful Korean unification, formally designate South Korea as the country’s “invariable principal enemy” and define the North’s sovereign, territorial sphere.

Some experts say North Korea might have delayed the constitutional revision, but others speculated it amended the constitution without announcing it because of its sensitivity.