North Korea warned South Saturday against the risk of “uncontrollable” confrontation as a result of the south -orean army citation in response to a brief incursion of Pyongyang troops.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, was revealed by North Korea on the first day of a trip abroad, to Tokyo and then in Washington, of the new president of South Korea, Lee Jae-Myung, who tries to reconnect between his country and his neighbor, still technically in the war.
North Korean troops movements
The facts took place while North Korean soldiers worked at the permanent closure of the fortified border that divides the Peninsula, according to the State North Korean agency, Kcna, citing a press release by Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol.
The South Korean army, confirming the warning blows, explained that several soldiers in the north had crossed the border “around 3:00 pm local” (6:00 am GMT), during their operations in the demilitarized area (DMZ) that separated the two countries, bringing their troops to carry out cumctions.
North Korean soldiers withdrew in the process, added the army, specifying that it was closely monitoring the movements of North Korean troops. “When registering the” severe provocation incident “, Mr. KO has counted more than ten warning blows towards his soldiers.
“This is a very serious story that could inevitably lead to the situation on the southern border, where a large number of troops are parked and a confrontation to an uncontrollable phase,” he said.
On Friday, Mr. Ko warned that North Korea would respond to any interference to his efforts to close the border, warning against any “deliberate military provocation.”
Pyongyang accuses Seoul of having a “double approach”, on the one hand, to dialogue while aggravating, according to the north, military tensions, explained Hong Min, analyst of the National Unification Institute of Korea.
Change of tone
The two Koreas have been technically at war for more than seven decades, the conflict that opposed from 1950 to 1953 had completed an armistice, and not with a peace treaty.
The relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been at the lowest for several years, after the North launched a series of ballistic missiles in the violation of the UN sanctions last year.
In April, the South Korean army had already triggered the warning after an incursion into the border of a dozen North Korean soldiers, who had retired.
North Korea’s troops made a series of small incursions across the border last year, which Seoul described as probably accidental.
But the tone has changed, on the South Korean side, from the elections in early June of Lee Jae-Myung at the end of the long period of political chaos caused by his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, who had briefly declared the martial law in December.
Mr. Lee promised to “respect” the political system of the north and build “trust between armies”, while committed to pursue the dialogue without prior conditions, which constitutes a break with the policy of its predecessor.
He made an official visit to Japan on Saturday and was going to the United States on Monday, a Seoul key ally, to meet his American counterpart Donald Trump for the expected discussions about trade.
Around 28,500 American soldiers in South Korea were deployed to help you protect from North Korea.
The two countries began on August 18, joint military exercises that must be completed on August 28 and are destined to prepare against possible threats from the north, endowed with nuclear weapons and now linked to Russia by a defense agreement.
South Korea also retired in early August, the speakers that spread k-pop and bulletins on the border, the army then said that the north was doing the same. What Kim Jong’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, denied.
Source: BFM TV
