Rivals trade shots across tense border
SEOUL — North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their border Sunday, the South’s military said, the first such incident since the rivals took unprecedented steps to lower frontline animosities in late 2018.
Violent confrontations have occasionally occurred along the border, the world’s most heavily fortified. While Sunday’s incident is a reminder of persistent tensions, it didn’t cause any known casualties on either side and is unlikely to escalate, observers said.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said North Korean troops fired several rounds at a South Korean guard post inside the border zone. South Korea responded with a total of 20 rounds of warning shots on two occasions before issuing a warning broadcast, it said.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, did not immediately report about the incident.
A preliminary South Korean analysis showed that North Korea’s firing wasn’t likely a calculated provocation, though Seoul will continue examining whether there was any motivation for the action, a South Korean defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Farming activities around the North Korean area where the firing occurred continued throughout Sunday and North Korea’s military didn’t display any other suspicious activities after the gunfire, the official said. He said there was a thick fog in the area at the time of the incident.
Later Sunday, South Korea sent a message to North Korea to try to avoid an escalation, but the North did not immediately reply, according to South Korea’s military.
The exchange of fire came a day after North Korea broadcast video of its leader, Kim Jong Un, reappearing in public after a 20day absence amid intense speculation about his health.
KCNA said Kim attended Friday’s ceremony marking the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang. State TV showed Kim smiling and walking around factory facilities.
The Korean Peninsula remains split along the 155milelong, 2.5milewide border called the Demilitarized Zone. It was originally created as a buffer after the end of the 195053 Korean War. An estimated 2 million mines are buried inside and near the DMZ.