Seoul, Jun 11 (EFE).- South Korea’s military said Tuesday that it recently fired several warning shots after a group of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the inter-Korean border amid an escalation of tension between the neighboring countries.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement that around 12:30 pm on Sunday, some North Korean troops crossed the Military Demarcation Line and into the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.
The South Korean military made warning broadcasts and fired warning shots prompting the North Korean soldiers to return to their side of the border, it added, local news agency Yonhap reported.
The JCS said that no unusual movements were detected by Pyongyang’s troops but added that it was closely monitoring the movements of the North Korean army and taking necessary measures according to operating procedures.
The atmosphere in the Korean Peninsula has worsened especially since January, when the North, which has been rejecting invitations for talks for almost five years, declared the South the country’s principal enemy and removed the goal of reunification from its Constitution.
Tensions escalated significantly over weekend when the North sent hundreds more balloons filled with garbage in response to balloons carrying anti-North Korea pamphlets sent by North Korean defectors in South Korea, which also reinstalled loudspeakers at the border to resume propaganda broadcasts against the Pyongyang regime.
North Korea’s balloon campaign, which began at the end of May, has led South Korea to suspend the inter-Korean military agreement adopted in 2018 to reduce tension mainly at the border and to announce that it will resume artillery drills in border crossings that it had paused as part of the conciliatory measures.
The North had already unilaterally abandoned the pact earlier. EFE
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