North Korea calls South’s border firing reckless provocation

Seoul, May 25

North Korea has called South Korea’s recent firing of warning shots at the border a “reckless military provocation” aimed at promoting anti-Pyongyang sentiments and maintaining a confrontation on the peninsula.

South Korea fired warning shots on Tuesday after detecting an object flying across the border from North Korea. Seoul later said the object was probably a balloon carrying Pyongyang’s propaganda leaflets.

The North’s General Staff on Thursday accused Seoul of fabricating the incident, saying South Korean soldiers fired 450 rounds of shots at a flock of birds.

It warned in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency that North Korea will closely watch how South Korea’s “confrontation hysteria” would develop.

The Koreas face off across the world’s most heavily armed border, and their militaries occasionally clash. — AP