South Korean troops were forced to fire warning shots after a contingent of 20 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border this week, Seoul’s military said this morning in the latest escalation of tensions along the line.
The worrying raid across the line separating the two armies took place in an overgrown area of the heavily fortified border area.
Relations between the two Koreas – still technically at war when the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty – are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North releasing hundreds of balloons full of garbage and feces sends to the US. South.
“Some North Korean soldiers working inside the DMZ on the central front briefly crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL),” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, referring to the Line of Control between the two Koreas.
“After our army sent out warning broadcasts and warning shots, they retreated north,” the report said.
North Korean soldiers stand at their military guard post as a North Korean flag flutters in the wind, seen from Paju, South Korea, Sunday, June 9, 2024
Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge leading to Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on June 11, 2024 in Paju, South Korea
A balloon is seen attached to an object (R) after it landed in a rice field in Seonwon-myeon, Ganghwa County, Incheon City on June 10, 2024.
This distribution photo, taken on June 9, 2024 and provided by the South Korean Ministry of Defense, shows unidentified items believed to be North Korean waste from balloons that crossed the inter-Korean border on a street in Seoul
This photo, taken on June 1, 2024 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on June 2, 2024, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaking while attending the opening ceremony of the Central Cadre School of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang
The raid was likely an accident, JCS spokesman Lee Sung-joon told reporters on Tuesday.
“The situation at that time was that the DMZ was now overgrown with trees and the MDL marking was not clearly visible,” Lee said.
“There was no road and the (North Korean soldiers) were moving through the bushes, and we observed (them) even before they got close to the MDL.
“We believe they did not intend to invade as they immediately moved north after the warning broadcasts and warning shots.”
In recent weeks, North Korea has sent more than a thousand balloons laden with trash, including cigarette butts and used toilet paper, to the South — a response, the country says, to balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda sent to the North by activists .
In response, the South Korean government suspended a 2018 tension-easing military deal and restarted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, angering the North, which warned Seoul was creating “a new crisis.”
North Korea could reinstall its own loudspeakers along the border, Seoul’s military said Monday, a tactic it had used since the 1960s but suspended in 2018.
Seoul’s spy agency said Tuesday it had also discovered signs that Pyongyang was demolishing parts of the inter-Korean railway.
A South Korean soldier stands guard at a military facility that used to house loudspeakers that were dismantled in 2018, near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju on June 11, 2024
An officer wearing protective gear collects waste from a balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea, in Siheung, South Korea, Sunday, June 2, 2024
South Korean soldiers, dressed in protective gear, check waste from a balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, on June 2, 2024
This photo, taken on May 30, 2024 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on May 31, 2024, shows the test firing of 600mm super-large rocket artillery at an unconfirmed location in North Korea
The North Korean soldiers’ incursion could be a “small provocation” to test the waters before a bigger move, Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who heads the World Institute, told reporters. for North Korea Studies, to AFP.
“It can also be seen as part of Kim Yo Jong’s preparation for what she described as ‘new countermeasures,'” he added.
Pyongyang has previously threatened artillery strikes on the speaker units.
South Korea’s loudspeaker broadcast on Sunday included news segments on Seoul’s decision to suspend the 2018 military agreement, along with a report on the global sales performance of Samsung Electronics smartphones, according to Yonhap news agency.
It also played songs from K-pop sensation BTS, Yonhap said.
Aside from anti-Kim Jong Un pamphlets, North Korea is also extremely sensitive to its people gaining access to South Korea’s thriving popular culture.
According to a United Nations report, Pyongyang passed a law in 2020 to punish anyone found to possess or distribute a large amount of South Korean media content with life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
Experts have warned that the decision to jettison the 2018 deal and restart loudspeaker broadcasts could have serious consequences, as past propaganda actions have had real-world consequences for inter-Korean relations.
In 2020, blaming anti-North leaflets, Pyongyang unilaterally cut all official military and political communications links with the South and blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border.