Doha: North Korea has informed the US-led UN Command (UNC) of its plans to build fortifications inside the border between the two Koreas, Seoul’s defense ministry said Monday, marking the first notification of its kind in more than six months.

According to Qatar News Agency, the North notified the multinational command tasked with monitoring inter-Korean border activities Wednesday that it would resume construction of barriers and barbed wire fences on its side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing the Dong-A Ilbo, a local newspaper.

A ministry official confirmed the notification did take place, while a UNC official declined to comment about its communication with the North Korean military. The defense ministry said the North’s notification could be seen as a “meaningful” message in relation to easing inter-Korean tensions, but noted it was too soon to make a judgment.

The UNC said the North’s delivering prior notifications in general is “useful” to mitigate risk of misinterpretation and miscalculation. Since April last year, North Korea has deployed troops to the DMZ to plant mines, erect apparent anti-tank barriers and reinforce roads after the country’s leader Kim Jong-un described inter-Korean relations as those between “two states hostile to each other” in late 2023.

Last October, North Korea unveiled that it had informed the UNC it would cut off all roads and railways connected to South Korea and build defense structures before blowing up cross-border roads once seen as symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation.