http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20542441-1702,00.html

 


Shots fired after Korean border trespass


By Kim Yeon-hee in Seoul 

October 07, 2006


SOUTH Korea fired warning shots today after North Korean soldiers briefly
crossed into its side of their heavily defended border.


The incident added to mounting tension after North Korea announced this week
it was planning a nuclear test. 

The skirmish follows demands by the UN Security Council for the reclusive
North not to carry out the test and warning of unspecified consequences if
it did.

"Our troops fired warning shots at the five North Korean soldiers after they
climbed over the military demarcation line despite several loudspeaker
warnings," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

It said they went about 30m across the line within the demilitarised zone
(DMZ), the last frontier of the Cold War. The North Korean soldiers did not
return fire and none were reported injured in the incident.

"It seems the North intended to raise tensions after their announcement on
Oct. 3 of a plan to conduct a nuclear test," said a South Korean military
source quoted by Yonhap news agency.

In late May, two North Koreans crossed the military line but also retreated
after South Korean guards fired warning shots.

North Korea stations most of its 1.2-million-strong army near the DMZ, a 4km
strip that has divided the two since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War for
which a formal peace treaty has never been agreed.

South Korea stations a large part of its nearly 700,000 troops near the
border, backed by around 30,000 US troops.

North Korea announced the planned test last Wednesday, saying it had no
choice in the face of what it said was a US threat of nuclear war and
economic sanctions.

There has been speculation the reclusive state might detonate a device this
weekend, and a Chinese source said North Korea planned to carry out the test
deep inside an abandoned mine.

A nuclear test would "jeopardise peace, stability and security in the region
and beyond" and "bring universal condemnation by the international
community," said the UN Security Council statement.

North Korea is thought to have the material to make a nuclear bomb but not
the technology to make one small enough to mount on a missile.

Japan and the US wanted a stronger statement threatening punitive action.
The Security Council has already imposed an embargo on dangerous weapons and
related materials going or leaving North Korea after the nation defied
international warnings by test-firing missiles.



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