SEOUL (AP) – South Korea’s military fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers crossed the rivals’ tense border yesterday, South Korean officials said.
South Korea’s military said in a statement that about 10 North Korean soldiers returned to the North after South Korea made warning broadcasts and fired warning shots.
It said the North Korean soldiers violated the military demarcation line at the eastern section of the border at 5pm. South Korea’s military said it is closely monitoring North Korean activities. Bloodshed and violent confrontations have occasionally occurred at the Koreas’ heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarised Zone.
But when North Korean troops briefly violated the border in June last year and prompted South Korea to fire warning shots, it didn’t escalate into a major source of tensions.
South Korean officials assessed that the soldiers didn’t deliberately commit the border intrusion and the site was a wooded area and military demarcation line signs there weren’t clearly visible.
