After demolishing sections of the inter-Korean roads and railways, North Korea has deployed troops to install anti-tank trenches there.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) announced on Monday that the North’s military recently installed concrete anti-tank trenches where the Gyeongui and Donghae roads and railways used to be.

The JCS said North Korea mobilized 300 to 400 soldiers and heavy equipment to build the trenches, which are 120 to 160 meters wide, ten meters long, and three to five meters deep.

It also said the North built a low embankment directly behind the trenches, piling up soil and planting trees to create an artificial hill.

Seoul’s military says North Korea could rapidly fill the anti-tank trenches in the event of a conflict by using the soil from the artificial hill, creating a route to advance into the South.

But it added that the North built the trenches as a show of force and to claim the territory.