Several dozen North Korean soldiers crossed the border with South Korea, before retreating under warning fire from the South Korean army, the Joint Staff in Seoul announced Tuesday, June 18. “Dozens of North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line [et] withdrew towards the North after warning shots » from the South, the general staff said. The incursion came hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s planned arrival in North Korea for a rare state visit.
In another incident, several North Korean soldiers were injured by mine explosions while working near the border, the same source said. According to a general staff official, these soldiers were carrying out clearing work and laying mines along the border but “suffered numerous casualties as a result of repeated landmine explosions during their work”. Despite this, the northern military “appear to recklessly continue their operations”added this official.
For several months, North Korea has been working to dismantle the roads and railways that connected it to the South when relations between the two countries were better. According to the South Korean general staff official, the North’s military is also strengthening fortifications on its side of the border by laying mines, building new anti-tank barriers and deforesting large areas.
“North Korea’s activities appear to be a measure to strengthen internal control, including preventing North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South”said the head of the general staff.
The balloon war
This is the second time in less than two weeks that North Korean soldiers have crossed the inter-Korean demarcation line, which separates the two states, still technically at war. On June 9, several soldiers from the North briefly entered South Korean territory, and withdrew after sound warnings and warning shots from soldiers from the South.
The two Koreas are separated by a 4 km wide demilitarized zone (DMZ). The dividing line is in the middle. The North and South Korean sides of the DMZ are heavily fortified but the demarcation line itself, located in the middle of this mine-infested zone, is only marked with simple signs.
Relations between the North and the South are currently going through one of the most tense periods in years. The two countries remain technically at war, the conflict which opposed them from 1950 to 1953 having ended in an armistice, and not a peace treaty.
In recent weeks, Pyongyang has sent hundreds of balloons weighted with trash such as cigarette butts, toilet paper and even animal excrement to South Korea. North Korea intended to respond to the sending by defector associations, also by balloon, of leaflets hostile to leader Kim Jong-un and his family, dollars in small denominations and USB keys containing K-pop and South Korean series. Seoul cannot legally prevent these shipments.
The North and the South have also each installed loudspeakers near the border with the aim of resuming sound propaganda broadcasts, suspended since 2018.