SEOUL, South Korea
South Korea on Tuesday said its soldiers fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border separating the two rival neighbors.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of
Staff (JCS) said that around 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers, who had been
engaged in unspecified construction work on the northern side, briefly crossed
the demarcated border at 8:30 a.m. (2330 GMT/UTC).
The JCS said the North Korean soldiers returned to their side of the border after South Korean border patrols fired warning shots.
A
similar incident occurred on June 11 after another group of North
Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border.
South Korea's military also
said that landmine explosions near the border injured several North Korean
soldiers, adding that Pyongyang had recently deployed troops to clear scrub and
lay mines amid
worsening relations between the two neighbors.
The JCS said
it anticipates Pyongyang will increase its border construction activities,
which it said could be aimed at making it more difficult for North Korean
civilians or soldiers to escape to the South.
When relations had not been as
frosty in 2018, the two Koreas removed landmines along a section of
the fortified border in a move to ease military tensions.
Pyongyang has been
sending thousands of trash-filled balloons south which it says is a
response to balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda sent north by
activists.
In response to the trash
balloons, the South Korean government earlier this month also suspended a 2018
tension-reducing military deal and restarted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts
along the border.
The move irked Pyongyang,
which warned Seoul was creating "a new crisis."
The neighbors remain
technically at war as the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather
than a peace treaty.
The demilitarized zone and
line of control dividing the peninsula is one of the most heavily mined places
in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment