South Korea's top military officer Wednesday urged his soldiers to be fully prepared for possible provocations by North Korea amid rising inter-Korean tensions.

Adm. Choi Yun-hee, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the remarks while touring the Army's 6th Infantry Division in the eastern border city of Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, to check its military readiness posture and to give pep talks to the service personnel there, according to the JCS.

"Heeding the fact that enemies have provoked at unexpected times and in unexpected fashions, you should perfect yourself in combat operations to respond sternly and ruthlessly," Choi stressed.

Pointing to changing circumstances in the spring season, which could lead the North to devise new military schemes along the border, the chairman also called the soldiers "to be on high alert to prevent them from not even thinking of infiltrating into our side."

Tensions run high on the Korean Peninsula with the bellicose communist country firing off missiles and issuing threats against South Korean civic groups' sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets via balloon across the border. (Yonhap)