South Korea fires warning shots at North Korea troops for violating border

South Korean soldiers fired warning shots after North Korean troops violated the border earlier this week, according to media reports.

Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday that North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border before retreating back to their territory on Sunday.

Seoul’s military said South Korean soldiers fired warning shots at the time.

“Some North Korean soldiers working within the DMZ on the central front briefly crossed the Military Demarcation Line. After our military issued warning broadcasts and warning shots, they retreated northward,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The North Korean soldiers did not appear to have intentionally crossed the border because the site is a wooded area and MDL signs there were not clearly visible, Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon told reporters.

The incident comes amid rising tensions over North Korea’s recent launches of balloons filled with rubbish.

North Korea began sending balloons carrying waste and animal faeces south across the border last month in response to propaganda sent north by South Korean activists.

South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts on Sunday, blaring K-pop music and world news toward the northern side.

Kim Jong-un’s sister warned on Sunday that South Koreans will be constantly “picking up lavatory paper” if Seoul continues to wage “psychological warfare” against North Korea.

Kim Yo-jong threatened further retaliation against South Korea, saying “it will undoubtedly witness the new counteraction of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] if provocations continue”.

The mine-strewn land border is the world’s most heavily armed border, with hundreds of thousands of combat troops facing each other.

It is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.