North & South Korea in gunfire exchange after Kim Jong-Un reappears

Pyongyang has sometimes used the tactic of escalate to de-escalate, using its military posturing as leverage in later negotiations

North and South Korea have exchanged gunfire in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which divides the two countries.

Seoul’s military said shots from the North hit a South Korean guard post in the central border town of Cheorwon.

It said it returned fire and delivered a warning announcement. There are no reports of injuries.

Such incidents across the world’s most heavily fortified border are rare – the last occurred in 2017. It is not clear what led the North to open fire.

Military officials in the South say there was no sign of unusual troop movements. They are trying to find out if this was an accident or deliberate.

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There’s a “low possibility” that the shots fired by North Korea were intentional, according to the South Korean military. But at this stage is unclear how they’ve made that assessment.

Even if it was an accident or a miscalculation, it shows just how important it is for troops to keep level heads in the heavily fortified DMZ to ensure the situation isn’t made much worse.

Read more: BBC