North Korea has claimed that the South Korean military fired warning shots in the border area on Tuesday, calling it a deliberate provocation, as reported by state media outlet KCNA on Saturday.
North Korea also said that warning broadcasts from the South Korean military in the border region were increasing.
‘Corresponding Countermeasure’
Since last year, North Korea has been building barriers in the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, while blowing up inter-Korean roads and railways.
North Korea will “take corresponding countermeasure” for any obstruction to the barrier building project, and “take no responsibility for the grave consequences” if advanced warning in the border area is ignored in the future, KCNA said, citing a statement by Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol, vice chief of the General Staff of the North Korean army.
Seoul Confirms
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that at around 3 p.m. Seoul time (0600 GMT) on Tuesday, some North Korean soldiers working in the border region crossed the military demarcation line between the two Koreas and the South Korean military fired warning shots, with North Korean troops later moving back north of the line.
The JCS did not elaborate further.
North Korea’s message is at odds with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung saying last week that it will end some military activities along its border with North Korea, in his government’s latest in a string of efforts to improve ties between the Neighbours still technically at war.
US-South Korea Joint Drills
North Korea also criticised again ongoing joint military drills by the US and South Korea as “an extremely provocative … drill for an actual war” in a separate KCNA piece on Saturday.
Pyongyang regularly criticises such drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes responds with weapons tests, but Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.
(With inputs from Reuters)
