South Korea detected a projectile, assumed to be a small rocket, that was fired toward the western province of Gyeonggi, a South Korean Defense Ministry official told CNN.
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After Thursday’s exchange of fire, North Korea threatened more military action if South Korea did not stop its propaganda campaign.
The reason for North Korea’s most recent escalation has been reported as the result of South Korea using loudspeakers in Yeoncheon to broadcast anti-Kim Jong-un propaganda.
Seoul starting broadcasting against the North last week in the response to what it alleges were North Korean-laid land mines which maimed two South Korean soldiers.
The North’s soldiers fired back in an exchange of gun fire that lasted about 10 minutes, with no casualties. South Korea has large speaker systems along the border that broadcast criticism of the North Korean leadership and news about South Korea, a tactic designed to demoralize troops on the other side.
South Korea retaliated by firing dozens of artillery rounds into North Korea, toward the site of the rocket’s launch.
North and South Korea traded fire on Thursday over the demilitarize zone.
“North Korea’s attack should have little impact on the country’s financial sector”, Joo said.
Pyongyang did not respond militarily to the artillery barrage yesterday, but its army later warned in a message that it will take further military action within 48 hours if the loudspeakers are not taken down. The multinational military exercises infuriate North Korea as it finds its southern neighbor teaming with America, Australia, Britain, Canada and other global allies.
“We are in the middle of our annual computer-simulated military exercise with the South Koreans”, Straub says.
Pyongyang’s powerful National Defence Commission had claimed that Seoul fabricated the evidence on the landmines and demanded video proof.
The Defence Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report, which comes at a time of elevated cross-border tensions, following a land mine attack earlier this month that Seoul blamed on Pyongyang.
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The Koreas’ mine-strewn DMZ is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war.
