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NORTH KOREA FIRED gunshots towards the South in the demilitarized zone dividing the peninsula today, prompting South Korean troops to fire back, Seoul’s military said.
The rare exchange of gunfire comes following the reappearance a day earlier of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after a near three-week absence from the public eye that triggered intense speculation about his health.
A South Korean guard post was hit by several shots from the North, the joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said in a statement, adding no casualties were reported on the South’s side.
“Our military responded with two rounds of gunfire and a warning announcement according to our manual,” Seoul said.
The JCS added it was communicating with the North via their military hotline to determine the cause of the incident.
The two Koreas remain technically at war after the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, and despite its name, the demilitarized zone is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences.
Easing military tensions on their border was one of the agreements reached between Kim and the South’s President Moon Jae-in at a summit in Pyongyang in September 2018.
But most of the deals have not been acted on by the North, with Pyongyang largely cutting off contact with Seoul.
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Psycho!!!
@Johnsinker: who? You? Was it an accidental shot? Why hit the post? Do you always jump to conclusions based on no evidence? Didn’t school teach you anything?
@Caoimhín O Neill: Evidence of Multiple rounds hitting the South Korean post, would point to aimed intentional fire from the North Korean side. Added to that are all the previous incidents of attacks on the South by North Korean Forces since 1952. And taking into account that North Korea is still in a State of War with South Korea, it would be a logical and rational point to argue that this was a hostile act by North Korea.
@Mick.: what has that to do with phycho? Southern hostile acts are just as frequent
@Johnsinker: Groupie! Cocaine! Crazy!…
@Caoimhín O Neill: ah give over. Looking for an argument everywhere.
@Sid: do you agree with the original comment fishing for likes? Or do you think it should be challenged?
@Caoimhín O Neill: Actually the South Koreans have not acted aggressively to North Korea since the early 60′s. In fact they have been immensely tolerant of North Korean attacks since.
Only in the last decade there has been 18 separate attacks on South Korea by the North.
@Mick.: Apparently Poland invaded Germany to start the second world war, and the vietnamese fired on USS Maddox to start the US involvement in Vietnam .British soldiers were shot at , causing the events of Bloody Sunday.
Back with a bang……good man Kim!
The evil of communism, hundreds of millions dead since the infamous October revolution,God will be their judge
@Jimmy Carroll: he’d want to hurry on.
@Jimmy Carroll: those numbers are cold war propaganda. They have no substance. Both China and USSR had population growth that would be impossible if the deaths that the USA claimed occurred had actually occurred. I used to also believe that too but when I looked for the primary sources I got to American newspapers.
To be fair after the reported death of Kim Jung un and previous satirical stories from Hong Kong becoming fact in mainstream media , you have to be sceptical about any reporting from there.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/kim-jong-un-uncle-fed-to-120-dogs-story-begun-by-chinese-satirist-9042072.html
They were probably sending each other memes and one from the South was too close to the bone.
have your say