Koreas exchange fire near border
Seoul, Oct. 29: North and South Korea exchanged gunfire across their heavily armed land border on Friday, the South’s military said, despite an apparent thaw in tensions on the divided peninsula in the past few months.
The North Korean front-line guard post fired two shots towards a South Korean guard post across the demilitarised zone and the South returned fire with three shots, a joint chiefs of staff official said.
It was not immediately clear why North Korea fired first, he said. The South Korean media said the shots were fired towards a front-line unit in Cheorwon in the eastern province of Gangwon. There were no reports of injuries.
Relations between the two Koreas, still technically at war after signing only a truce to halt hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War, sank to the lowest level with the torpedoing of the South’s warship, killing 46 sailors.
South Korea and the United States said the North was responsible for the sinking, which Pyongyang denied.
In the past few months, tensions have eased on the peninsula with the South sending aid to its impoverished neighbour, and on the weekend the two sides will resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
The thaw comes as regional powers look for ways to restart talks with the North on ending its nuclear arms programme. However, Seoul has said it won’t return to negotiations until the North acknowledges being behind the attack on the warship, posing a stumbling block to the resumption of aid-for-disarmament talks.
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