Koreans Fire Across Border

Thursday, July 17, 2003

(2:29 PM ET) (18:29 GMT)

The Cable News Network

CNN's Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-Ae and Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report

Earlier this year, North Korean jets entered South Korean space, in a bid to test the South's defense force, analysts said. Tension on the Korean peninsula has been rising since North Korean officials told the United States in October last year it had a covert nuclear weapons program, in violation of a 1994 pact.

SEOUL, South Korea -- CNN
South and North Korean troops have briefly exchanged gunfire in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula.

The rare exchange -- the first on the border since November 2001 -- occurred as Beijing said it would visit Washington to talk about North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

At 6.10 a.m. South Korean time Thursday (2110 GMT Wednesday), North Korean soldiers fired four rounds from a military outpost, the South's joint chiefs of staff said in a statement.

South Korea broadcast warnings telling the North they were violating an armistice that ended the Korean War and retaliated by firing 17 rounds back.

North Korea has yet to issue a statement on the incident near the South Korean town of Yonchon, but officials from the South said there were no casualties on their side.
(More: CNN.com)
2003 © Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

Dan