Seoul says it is ‘fully ready’ for any provocation as Pyongyang sends eight artillery brigades to the border.

South Korea’s military has announced it is “fully ready” to respond, amid reports that North Korean troops have been deployed to the border and are preparing to blow up roads connecting the two nations along the heavily militarized dividing line .

Tensions have escalated in recent days as nuclear-armed North Seoul accused Seoul of flying drones over its capital to drop propaganda leaflets full of “inflammatory rumors and nonsense”, warning that if another drone were detected it would would consider “a declaration of war”.

South Korean military spokesman Lee Sung-jun told reporters in Seoul on Monday that they are “fully prepared” for the possibility of “a provocation” after Pyongyang ordered artillery units along the border to open fire in the event of an escalation.

South Korea’s state news agency Yonhap also quoted Lee as saying the military has discovered the North is installing barriers along roads “to prepare for the explosions.”

“It is possible that (the explosions in North Korea) could happen as early as today (Monday),” he said. “If North Korea undertakes a provocation, we will retaliate strongly in terms of our right to self-defense.”

Seoul Korea on Monday neither confirmed nor denied that it was responsible for sending drones across the border, calling the North’s claim “shameless.”

Lee, his military spokesman, instead blamed Pyongyang for causing the tension after it launched “vulgar and base trash balloons” towards the south.

Seoul has previously denied it was behind the drone flights, with local speculation focusing on activist groups in the South, which have long sent propaganda and the currency of the United States, a close ally of South Korea, to the North, mostly by balloon.

But the North insists Seoul is officially to blame, announcing late on Sunday that it had ordered eight artillery brigades already at war to “fully prepare to open fire” and reinforced air observation posts in Pyongyang.

Pyongyang claims propaganda drones have infiltrated the capital’s airspace three times in recent days, with leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister threatening a “terrible disaster” unless they stop.

In a statement early Monday, Kim Yo Jong said the drone flights were “an unforgivable, evil challenge to our state.”

As part of the retaliation, the North also appears to be preparing to carry out explosions on roads connected to the South, the Seoul military said.

Last week, the North’s military announced that the measure will “completely separate” North Korea’s territory from the South.

The two Koreas are technically still at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

The cross-border roads are remnants of periods of rapprochement between the countries, including a summit between leaders in 2018 when they declared that there would be no more war and a new era of peace had begun.

North Korea has reintroduced heavy weapons into the demilitarized zone’s border buffer and restored guard posts after the two sides declared void a 2018 military agreement aimed at easing tensions.