The country will formally restrict roads and railways to its southern neighbor, North Korea’s military declared and called it a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war.” The Korean People’s Army said it was going to strengthen defenses on its side of the border and “permanently shut off and block the southern border,” BBC reported.

Tensions between the countries have risen in recent weeks after North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests, and South Korea responded with joint military exercises with the United States. Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, was also uneasy over South Korea’s military parade while celebrating its country’s ​​76th anniversary of Armed Forces Day. North Korea’s decision comes after a recent war of words between the country’s two leaders.

“The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security,” reported KCNA, North Korea’s state-controlled media.

Kim also condemned South Korea as his country’s “primary foe and invariable principal enemy,” CNN reported.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff was critical of North Korea’s decision and likened it to an act of despair. They labeled it “a desperate measure stemming from the insecurity of the failed Kim Jong Un regime” and that it would only result in North Korea’s “harsher isolation.”

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor and scholar from South Korea’s Ewha Womans University, speculated that North Korea’s decision to cut off contact with Seoul could be part of a distraction to “shift blame for its economic failures and legitimize its costly buildup of missiles and nuclear weapons.”

“Kim Jong Un wants domestic and international audiences to believe he is acting out of military strength, but he may actually be motivated by political weakness,” Easley told CNN. “North Korea’s threats, both real and rhetorical, reflect the regime survival strategy of a hereditary dictatorship.”

Despite the harsh tones and current geopolitical tensions between the two countries, North Korea’s decision to cut off ties is little more than a publicity stunt. According to reports, the countries have been cut off from each other, and any roads and railways that connect the two have been out of service for quite some time. 

Nevertheless, the strong rhetoric and frosty communication between the countries could signify things to come on the Korean peninsula.