South Korean troops fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed land border

Seoul, South Korea. South Korean soldiers fired warning shots after North Korean troops briefly breached the tense border earlier this week, South Korea’s military said on Tuesday, as rivals are engaged in Cold War-style campaigns as balloon releases and propaganda broadcasts.

Violent clashes and bloodshed have occasionally occurred on the Koreas’ heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarized Zone. While Sunday’s incident occurred amid simmering tensions between the two Koreas, observers say it is unlikely to become another source of animosity, as South Korea believes the North Koreans did not deliberately commit the border intrusion and North Korea He also did not respond to the fire.

At 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, some North Korean soldiers who were carrying out unspecified work on the northern side of the border crossed the military demarcation line dividing the two countries, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Those North Korean soldiers carrying construction tools, some of them armed, immediately returned to their territory after the South Korean military fired warning shots and issued warning broadcasts, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. He said North Korea had not carried out any other suspicious activity.

South Korea’s military has assessed that the North Korean soldiers did not appear to have intentionally crossed the border because the site is a forested area and MDL signs were not clearly visible, Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Sung Joon told reporters. .

Lee did not elaborate. But South Korean media reports said that between 20 and 30 North Korean soldiers had entered South Korean territory about 50 meters (165 feet) after they were likely lost. Reports said most North Korean soldiers carried pickaxes and other construction tools.

The DMZ, 248 kilometers (155 miles) long and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide, is the most heavily armed border in the world. There are an estimated 2 million mines laid in and near the border, which is also guarded by barbed wire, tank traps and combat troops on both sides. It is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

On Sunday, South Korea resumed anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts from its border loudspeakers in response to the North’s recent balloon launches carrying manure and garbage across the border. South Korea said North Korea installed its own border speakers in response but has not yet turned them on.

North Korea has said its balloon campaign was in response to South Korean activists launching their own balloons to launch propaganda leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian rule, USB flash drives with K-pop songs and South Korean drama programs, and other articles on North Korea.

North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of its political system, as most of its 26 million people have no official access to foreign news. On Sunday night, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, warned of “a new response” if South Korea continued its loudspeaker broadcasts and refused to stop civilian leaflet distribution campaigns.

The tit-for-tat over talking heads and balloons – both Cold War-style psychological warfare – has deepened tensions between the two Koreas, as talks over the North’s nuclear ambitions have remained stalled for years.