[Yonhap Photo]
South Korea accused North Korea Wednesday of launching leaflet-carrying balloons this week for its propaganda war that triggered a volley of warning shots from front-line soldiers and raised military tensions along the heavily guarded inter-Korean border.
Warnings shots were fired Tuesday when several of about ten propaganda balloons launched by North Korean troops flew into the southern side of the demilitarized zone which split the Korean peninsula following the 1950-53 Korean conflict, the South's defense ministry said.
South Korean front-line soldiers in the northeastern border town of Chorwon fired warnings shots several times as the balloon exercise lasted for more than three years from 5 pm (0800 GMT), the ministry said.
For decades, the two Koreas, which are still technically at war with no peace treaty signed, have been locked in an outdated propaganda war across the world's last Cold War frontier dotted with concrete walls, electric fences, mine fields and high-decibel loudspeakers.
The flight of spy drones and propaganda balloons caused intermittent gunfire. In October 2014, North Korean troops opened fire in an attempt to shoot down a set of South Korean balloons, sparking a brief exchange of fire.
Pyongyang has bombarded South Korean border areas with its own propaganda leaflets. Most South Koreans don't take North Korean leaflets seriously, but they are concerned about leaflet bundles which have caused minor damage to civilian quarters. North Korea has used time bombs to control the explosion of balloons.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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