SEOUL,
South Korea (AP) — North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along
their tense border on Sunday, the South’s military said, the first such
incident since the rivals took unprecedented steps to lower front-line
animosities in late 2018.
Violent
confrontations have occasionally occurred along the border, the world’s
most heavily fortified. While Sunday’s incident is a reminder of
persistent tensions, it didn’t cause any known casualties on either side
and is unlikely to escalate, observers said.
The
Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement that North Korean
troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post inside the
border zone. South Korea responded with a total of 20 rounds of warning
shots on two occasions before issuing a warning broadcast, it said.
South
Korea suffered no casualties, the military said. Defense officials said
it’s also unlikely that North Korea had any casualties, since the South
Korean warning shots were fired at uninhibited North Korean territory.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, did not
immediately report about the incident.
A
preliminary South Korean analysis showed that North Korea’s firing
wasn’t likely a calculated provocation, though Seoul will continue
examining whether there was any motivation for the action, a South
Korean defense official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing
department rules.
Farming
activities around the North Korean area where the firing occurred
continued throughout Sunday and North Korea’s military didn’t display
any other suspicious activities after the gunfire, the official said. He
said there was a thick fog in the area at the time of the incident.
Later
Sunday, South Korea sent a message to North Korea to try to avoid an
escalation, but the North did not immediately reply, according to South
Korea’s military.
The
exchange of fire came a day after North Korea broadcast video of its
leader, Kim Jong Un, reappearing in public after a 20-day absence amid
intense speculation about his health.
KCNA
said Kim attended Friday’s ceremony marking the completion of a
fertilizer factory near Pyongyang along with senior officials. State TV
showed Kim smiling and walking around factory facilities.
Kim
earlier vanished from the public eye after presiding over a Politburo
meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on April 11 to discuss the
coronavirus. Speculation about his health began swirling after he missed
an April 15 event commemorating the birthday of his grandfather and
state founder, Kim Il Sung, something he had never done since inheriting
power upon his father Kim Jong Il’s death in late 2011.
The
Korean Peninsula remains split along the 248-kilometer (155-mile)
-long, 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide border called the Demilitarized
Zone. It was originally created as a buffer after the end of the 1950-53
Korean War. But unlike its name, an estimated 2 million mines are
peppered inside and near the DMZ, which is also guarded by barbed wire
fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides.
Under
a set of agreements to reduce border tensions reached in September
2018, the two Koreas destroyed some of their front-line guard posts and
began removing mines from the DMZ later that year. But the efforts
stalled amid a deadlock in negotiations between Kim and President Donald
Trump meant to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal. The
diplomacy hasn’t made any headway since the second Kim-Trump summit in
Vietnam in early 2019 broke down due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions
on North Korea.
Earlier
this year, North Korea carried out a slew of missile and other weapons
tests, but they were short-range and none posed a direct threat to the
U.S. mainland.
The
last time there was gunfire along the Korea border was in November
2017, when North Korean soldiers sprayed bullets at a colleague fleeing
to South Korea. The defector was hit five times, but survived and is now
living in South Korea. South Korea didn’t return fire.
Previously,
the two Koreas traded gunfire along the DMZ numerous times, but no
deadly clashes have occurred in recent years. A 2015 land mine blast
that maimed two South Korean soldiers pushed the Koreas to the brink of
an armed conflict. South Korea blamed North Korea for the explosion.
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