North Korea accuses South of firing warning shots at its troops near border amid tensions

North Korea accused the South’s military on Saturday of firing warning shots at its troops near their heavily fortified border, saying it risked raising tensions to “uncontrollable” levels.

South Korea’s new leader Lee Jae Myung has sought to ease tensions with the nuclear-armed North and vowed to build “military trust”, but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul.

The latest confrontation occurred on Tuesday as North Korean soldiers worked to permanently seal the frontier dividing the peninsula, Pyongyang’s state media said, citing a statement by Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol.

Calling the incident a “serious provocation”, Ko said Seoul’s military used a machine gun to fire more than 10 warning shots towards the North’s troops, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area where a huge number of forces are stationing in confrontation with each other to the uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.

South Korea did not immediately confirm the encounter.

‘Deliberate provocation’

The last border confrontation between the arch-rivals was in early April when South Korea’s military fired warning shots after around 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border.

Those troops were spotted in the demilitarised zone between the two countries, parts of which are heavily mined and overgrown.

North Korea’s military announced last October it was moving to totally shut off the southern border, saying it had sent a telephone message to US forces to “prevent any misjudgment and accidental conflict”.

Shortly after, it blew up sections of the unused but deeply symbolic roads and railroad tracks that connect the North to the South.

Ko warned that North Korea’s army would retaliate against any interference with its efforts to permanently seal the border.

“If the act of restraining or obstructing the project unrelated to the military character persists, our army will regard it as deliberate military provocation and take corresponding countermeasure,” he said.

‘Restore trust’

Under Lee’s more hawkish predecessor, relations between the two Koreas had sunk to one of their lowest points in years.

Last year, North Korea sent thousands of trash-carrying balloons southwards, saying they were retaliation for anti-North propaganda balloons floated by South Korean activists.

Later, the South began border loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in years – including K-pop tunes and international news – and the North started transmitting strange and unsettling sounds along the frontier.

After Lee’s election in June, Seoul said the two countries had halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarised zone and it later said it had detected North Korean troops dismantling loudspeakers on the frontier.

Lee has pledged to pursue dialogue with the nuclear-armed North without preconditions, saying last week his government “will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust”.

However, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, has said the North has “no will to improve relations” with the South.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.