Dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly breached the strongly fortified border with South Korea on Tuesday before retreating after warning shots were fired, Seoul’s military said, adding that landmine explosions injured Pyongyang’s troops in the area.
It is the second such occurrence involving North Korean troops in two weeks, with Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claiming that the Tuesday crossing, like the previous one on June 9, was unintentional.
The two Koreas are still nominally at war because the 1950-1953 War concluded in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, with the demilitarized zone and line of control dividing the peninsula, one of the most extensively mined locations in the world.
“Dozens of North Korean troops crossed the Military Demarcation Line today… (and) retreated northwards after warning shots were fired”, a JCS official reported.
Seoul’s military also announced on Tuesday that many North Korean soldiers were hurt when a landmine burst near the border but did not give the date.
According to a JCS officer, the North Koreans were working on establishing barren land and planting mines along the border but ended up suffering multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents during their work.
“Even so, the North’s military appears to be recklessly pressing ahead with the operations”, added the official.
North Korea has started working this year to remove lamps from roadways and dig up railway links that once connected the two countries.
“Since April, North Korea has deployed troops along the front line to create barren land”, the official claimed, adding that the North was also laying additional landmines, strengthening tactical roads, and erecting what seemed to be anti-tank obstacles.
“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South”, the official from the JCS pointed out.
The great majority of North Koreans who flee the country travel to China before making their way to the South, usually via another country, with only a few ever crossing the DMZ, which is laced with landmines and has a substantial military presence on both sides.
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