South Korea fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the heavily fortified border earlier this week, according to Seoul. Pyongyang accused South Korea of a “deliberate provocation” that could escalate tensions. South Korea’s new leader, Lee Jae Myung, has been seeking to improve relations with North Korea and decrease military tensions, but Pyongyang has shown no interest in improving relations with Seoul.
On Tuesday, several North Korean soldiers briefly crossed into South Korea while working in the heavily mined Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. In response, South Korea’s military fired warning shots, and the North Korean soldiers retreated. North Korea’s state media claimed that the incident happened during their efforts to permanently seal the border and accused South Korea of using a machine gun to fire more than 10 warning shots towards their troops. North Korea’s military warned that any interference with their efforts to permanently seal the border would be met with a strong response.
North Korea has taken steps to completely shut off the southern border and has blown up sections of roads and railroad tracks that connect the North to the South. The last border confrontation between the two Koreas was in early April, when South Korea’s military fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers crossing the border. North Korea’s leader called for the rapid expansion of the nation’s nuclear weapons and accused US-South Korean military exercises of the potential to ignite war.
In response to the exercise, Lee described the drills as “defensive” and affirmed they were not intended to heighten tensions. Other issues impacting relations between the two Koreas include South Korea’s military shrinking by 20% due to low birth rates and North Korea’s anger at such exercises between the US and the South.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/23/north-korea-accuses-south-korea-of-deliberate-provocation-after-warning-shots-fired-at-soldiers-on-border
