By RIA Novosti
Seoul : North and South Korean border guards briefly exchanged fire Monday, a day before the start of a new round of working-level talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.
It quoted a spokesman for South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying that the firefight took place near Inje, 165 km northeast of Seoul, on the eastern portion of the buffer zone that separates the two Koreas.
According to the spokesman, North Korean soldiers started the shootout and South Korean soldiers immediately fired back at least 10 rounds. No casualties have been reported from either side.
“Our military fired a few warning shots and demanded through a loudspeaker that North Koreans stop firing and apologise but no reaction from the North has followed,” the agency quoted the official as saying.
Tuesday’s talks, involving the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States, are part of an international effort to persuade the reclusive Communist regime to abandon its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for humanitarian aid.
The last incident in the area took place July 31, 2006, when, according to a South Korean claim, North Korean soldiers fired two shots at a South Korean guard post in the eastern part of the buffer zone.