Gunfire breaks out on North Korean border after Kim Jong-un’s troops cross WW3 flashpoint frontier in major escalation

SOUTH Korean troops fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border this week, Seoul’s military said Tuesday.

The rivals have been embroiled in Cold War-style campaigns like trash-filled balloon launches and propaganda broadcasts.

AFP

Test-firing of 600mm super-large rocket artillery at an unconfirmed location in North Korea[/caption]

AP

North Korean soldiers stand near their military guard post as a North Korean flag flutters in the wind, seen from Paju, South Korea[/caption]

AP

Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea on Tuesday[/caption]

Bloodshed and violent confrontations have occasionally occurred at the Koreas’ heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarized Zone.

While Sunday’s incident happened amid simmering tensions between the two Koreas, observers say it won’t likely develop into another source of animosity as South Korea believes the North Koreans didn’t deliberately commit the border intrusion and North Korea also didn’t return fire.

At 12.30 pm on Sunday, some North Korean soldiers who were engaged in unspecified work on the northern side of the border crossed the military demarcation line that bisects the two countries, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Those North Korean soldiers carrying construction tools some of them armed immediately returned to their territory after South Korea’s military fired warning shots and issued warning broadcasts, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

It said North Korea had not conducted any other suspicious activities.