Seoul fires warning shots after Pyongyang soldiers cross border again

TOKYO, The South Korean military said Tuesday it fired warning shots after around 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the inter-Korean border again, Yonhap News Agency reported. The North Korean soldiers crossed the Military Demarcation Line within the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in the central section of the border at around 8:30 a.m. (2330 Mondy GMT), the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The South's military aired warning broadcasts and fired warning shots, prompting the North Koreans to return to their side of the border, according to the JCS. "Our military is thoroughly monitoring the North's activities in the border area amid close cooperation with the UN Command," the JCS said. It marked the North's second border violation in less than two weeks after a similar incident on June 9. The border violations came as North Korea has been deploying large numbers of troops in front-line areas since April to conduct an array of activities, such as planting mines, erecting walls a nd building roads for military operations. In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gave instructions for "strict" measures to block all the channels of inter-Korean communication along the border. Source: Kuwait News Agency