Shooting as Kim Jong Un’s forces crossed the Korean border

The South Korean military fired warning shots when a group of about 20 North Korean soldiers crossed the country’s land border over the weekend, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said Tuesday.

Northern forces crossed the military demarcation line inside the demilitarized zone separating the two countries at about 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The breach occurred amid escalating tensions between the two countries due to waves of balloons carrying garbage and excrement launched south across the border by Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Colonel Lee Sung-joon said Seoul did not consider the incursion intentional because soldiers headed north immediately after the warning shots. He also said that the current dense foliage inside the demilitarized zone could make seeing the demarcation line difficult, according to the center. Yonhap News Agency.

Agency too mentioned An unnamed Joint Chiefs of Staff official said the North Korean forces were carrying shovels and other tools and may have inadvertently “lost their way” inside the demilitarized zone.

This comes after South Korea resumed broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda over loudspeakers along the border for the first time in years. Seoul has revived the practice as part of its response to the launch of more than 1,000 garbage balloons into the South in recent weeks.

North Korea says it began sending the balloons in response to activists in the South who themselves used the balloons to send propaganda leaflets condemning Kim’s rule in his tightly controlled country.