North Korea on Saturday accused South Korean forces of firing warning shots at its soldiers who were part of a border reinforcement project, cautioning Seoul that its actions risked raising tensions to “uncontrollable” levels, Al Jazeera reported.
In a report published on Saturday, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the North’s Korean People’s Army Vice Chief of the General Staff Ko Jong Chol as saying that the South should stop its “premeditated and deliberate” provocation, which he described as “inciting military conflict”, as per Al Jazeera.
North Korea Condemns South Korea For ‘Deliberate Provocation’
Calling the incident from earlier this week a “serious provocation”, Ko said the South Korean military fired more than 10 warning shots towards North Korean troops.
“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area, where a huge number of forces are stationed, in confrontation with each other, to the uncontrollable phase,” Al Jazeera quoted Ko as saying.
The incident took place on Tuesday as North Korean soldiers were working to permanently seal the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula, state media outlet KCNA said, citing a statement from Ko.
In a statement on Saturday, the South Korean military acknowledged that its soldiers had fired warning shots after it claimed North Korean troops had briefly crossed the border.
South Korea Justifies Warning Shots After Border Breach
“Some North Korean soldiers operating near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) within the central frontline DMZ [Demilitarised Zone] crossed the MDL, prompting our military to fire warning shots,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, referring to the de facto border.
“The North Korean soldiers then moved north of the MDL,” the statement added.
The reported firing of warning shots is only the latest confrontation between North and South Korean forces, which have been at odds for decades over the heavily guarded border that divides both nations.
The last border clash between the archrivals was in early April when South Korea’s military fired warning shots after a group of 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border, as per Al Jazeera. (ANI)
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