South Korean forces have accused North Korea of firing warning shots at its soldiers who were engaged in a border-reinforcement project, warning Seoul that the actions would escalate tensions to “uncontrollable” levels.
Ko Jong Chol, the North’s Korean People’s Army Vice Chief of the General Staff, quoted by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying the South should stop its “premeditated and deliberate” provocation, which he described as “inciting military conflict.”
The South Korean military fired more than 10 warning shots at North Korean troops, according to Ko, who described the incident as a “serious provocation” from earlier this week.
“This is a very serious prelude that will unavoidably lead to the situation in the southern border area, where a large number of forces are stationed, in conflict with one another, to an uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.
According to state media outlet KCNA, the incident occurred on Tuesday as North Korean soldiers were attempting to permanently seal the peninsula’s heavily fortified border, citing a statement from Ko.
The South Korean military acknowledged that its soldiers had fired warning shots after claiming North Korean troops had briefly crossed the border in a statement on Saturday.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of Seoul reported in a statement that some North Korean soldiers who were operating close to the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) in the central frontline DMZ]Demilitarized Zone [had crossed the MDL, prompting our military to fire warning shots.
The statement continued, “The North Korean soldiers then moved north of the MDL.”
The North and South Korean forces have been at odds for decades over the tightly guarded border that divides both countries, but the reportedly fired warning shots only represent the latest confrontation.
The archrivals’ final border conflict occurred in early April when a group of ten North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border with South Korea’s military.
The two countries’ Demilitarized Zone, which contains significant amounts of mined and overgrown land, was where those troops were spotted.
Following President Lee Jae-myung’s victory in June, South Korea has been easing border tensions in recent months.
‘Corresponding countermeasure ‘
North Korea’s army announced last October that it would completely shut off the southern border, claiming to have received a phone message from US forces stationed in South Korea to “prevent any misinterpretation and accidental conflict.”
It blew up portions of the former North and South’s cross-border roads and railroad tracks, which were largely unused but incredibly symbolic.
Ko warned that any interference with North Korea’s army’s efforts to permanently seal the border would be retaliated in the statement released by state media.
Our army will view the act of restraining or obstructing the project as a deliberate military provocation, he said, and take appropriate countermeasure if it persists.
North Korea claimed last year that sending thousands of trash-carrying balloons southward was retaliation for South Korean activists’ use of anti-North Korean propaganda balloons.
Source: Aljazeera
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