South Korea, North Korea in talks after gunfire exchange in DMZ

[Elderberry]

American Military News by  Kanga Kong - Bloomberg News  May 03, 2020

South Korean and North Korean troops exchanged gunfire in the demilitarized zone between the nations Sunday morning, and the two sides are now in talks via a military communication line.

North Korea fired at a South Korean military guard post several times around 7:41 a.m. local time, prompting it to shoot back twice and send out a verbal warning, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. No casualties or damage to equipment were reported in South Korea.

The clash occurred a day after North Korean state media reported leader Kim Jong Un’s first public appearance in almost three weeks. His absence had prompted global speculation about his health. While U.S. officials said they were told Kim was in critical condition after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure, a top South Korean foreign policy adviser later said he was “alive and well.”

The two Koreas had previously exchanged fire within the heavily-fortified DMZ, including in 2014 when Kim was unseen in public for more than a month. Hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides of the border guard the DMZ that bisects the peninsula, a legacy of the 1950-53 war that ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

More: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/05/south-korea-north-korea-in-talks-after-gunfire-exchange-in-dmz/

[mountaineer]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their tense border on Sunday, the South’s military said, the first such incident since the rivals took unprecedented steps to lower front-line animosities in late 2018.

Violent confrontations have occasionally occurred along the border, the world’s most heavily fortified. While Sunday’s incident is a reminder of persistent tensions, it didn’t cause any known casualties on either side and is unlikely to escalate, observers said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement that North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post inside the border zone. South Korea responded with a total of 20 rounds of warning shots on two occasions before issuing a warning broadcast, it said.

South Korea suffered no casualties, the military said. Defense officials said it’s also unlikely that North Korea had any casualties, since the South Korean warning shots were fired at uninhibited North Korean territory. ...

More at Associated Press