State media published photos of what it said were young recruits enlisting.

Pyongyang says the rush to join the army follows what it calls a provocative drone incursion by South Korea.

North Korea has made similar claims about army recruitment in the past, during previous phases of heightened tensions in the region.

Well, those heightened tensions on Tuesday is after North Korea blew up some of the roads along its border with the South.

Zain Basravi has more.

A day after issuing a warning, North Korea blew up roads on its side of the border with South Korea.

A violent but symbolic gesture, severing a path connecting the two rivals.

The South Korean military responded by firing warning shots on its own territory.

The episode signals escalating tensions on the peninsula.

Pyongyang accuses Seoul of routinely violating its airspace.

On Sunday, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un warned there would be consequences.

The scattering of leaflets over the capital city will be regarded as a grave, politically motivated provocation and an infringement upon our sovereignty, but the fact that drones carried the leaflets is at the core of the seriousness of this incident.

South Korea's military has denied sending drones north, but Pyongyang says it has clear evidence its southern neighbor was behind drones that reached Pyongyang in recent weeks.

Activists and North Korean defectors also fly balloons into the north, carrying aid parcels and leaflets criticizing Kim.

The north has retaliated with its own balloons, filled with trash, even human waste.

On Tuesday, South Korea condemned the destruction of the roads.

What North Korea has done is a clear violation of the inter-Korean agreement.

We see it as a very abnormal act, and the government strongly condemns it.

North Korea has spent months laying mines and building anti-tank barriers, and after pledging last week to permanently seal its southern border, blowing up some roads may be only the beginning of a diplomatic winter.

Zain Basravi, Al Jazeera.

Yang Shik Bong is a research fellow at Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies, and he's joining us live from Seoul.

Thank you as always for your time, Mr. Bong, we appreciate it.

We use the word heightened tensions for the Korean peninsula a lot.

How would you characterize the current hostilities?

Well, the tension on the Korean peninsula has been definitely heightened by the exchange of the very aggressive rhetoric and some military actions by both sides.

But the crisis will be more or less well contained because neither side wants or affords further escalation of tension and letting the situation out of control.

Because North Korean authority cannot afford to exchange fire with South Korea, because the strategic balance of power favors South Korea, and South Korean government, as a responsible for the safety and lives of its citizens, does not want to further escalate tension.

And for the United States, the Biden administration cannot afford to have another war that can be used by the Republican Party to attack the failure of the foreign policy by the Biden administration.

And the Vice President Kamala Harris has been tied to the Biden administration's performance in foreign policy for the past three and a half years.

How much of North Korea's current posturing would you say has to do with the U.S. election, which Kim often sees the U.S. election cycle as a messaging opportunity, doesn't he?

Well, it's not going to make a huge impact on the U.S. presidential election, and it makes more strategic sense for the Kim Jong-un regime of North Korea to conduct a major provocation after it is going to know who will be the next president in the White House, including potential seventh nuclear test, in order to strengthen its strategic leverage upon the United States with a new president.

And if you read carefully the statements, filled with very angry, harsh words issued by Kim Yo-jong, the second in command in North Korean government and the foreign ministry of North Korean government, behind the harsh rhetoric and threats, there is a clear intention and desire on the part of North Korea to stop further escalation of tension, and just asking South Korea to stop further deployment of drones and propaganda leaflets to North Korea.

Youngsik Bong, joining us live from Seoul, thank you very much for your analysis.

We appreciate it.

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