North Korea Refuses to Explain Exchange of Gunfire with South Korean Outpost

North Korean troops fired several gunshots at a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday, prompting the South Korean soldiers to fire a volley of warning shots in response and broadcast a warning against further aggression.

The North Korean regime did not respond to South Korea’s request for an explanation of the incident.

As South Korea’s Yonhap News told the tale on Sunday, South Korean border guards heard gunfire early Sunday morning, emerged from their outpost to investigate, and found four bullet holes in the wall. They responded by firing two volleys of ten warning shots, in accordance with longstanding protocols. No injuries have been reported from the exchange of gunfire.

“We also sent a notice to the North Korean side via the inter-Korean communication line at around 9:35 a.m., and called for its explanation,” a spokesperson for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

As of Monday morning, North Korea has not responded to that request for an explanation. South Korea also used the inter-Korean communication line to advise the North that the actions of its soldiers violated military accords between the two Koreas.

According to South Korean military officials quoted by Joongang Ilbo, the four rounds fired by North Korea “appeared to have a caliber of 14.5 millimeters, meaning they likely came from a Soviet-made heavy machine gun commonly used by North Korea as anti-aircraft weapons.” 

Chosun Ilbo quoted a South Korean Defense Ministry official who assessed a “low probability of deliberate provocation” and suggested the shots may have been fired during a period of “low visibility” during the early morning when North Korean forces typically check their weapons. The official further noted North Korean farmers in the area tended to their chores without any disruption and there were no unusual movements by North Korean troops.

“It was the first exchange of gunfire between South and North Korea in years. Under the Comprehensive Military Agreement signed in September 2018, the two Koreas agreed to halt all hostile acts against each other, a move aimed at reducing tensions and building trust,” Yonhap noted.

The United Nations Command (UNC), which enforces the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, said on Monday that it will investigate the incident and will “continue to monitor the situation.” The UNC announced on Monday that it will send a team to the DMZ to investigate the incident.

Both the UNC and South Korean military spokespeople said the North does not appear to have taken any further aggressive action beyond firing those four gunshots into the wall of the South Korean outpost.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Martha Raddatz of ABC News on Sunday that the incident appears to have been an isolated accident.

“We can confirm at least the initial reports are that you’ve described are just about right – a handful of shots that came across from the North. We think those were accidental. The South Koreans did return fire. So far as we can tell, there was no loss of life on either side,” Pompeo told Raddatz.

Pompeo did not speculate on whether the DMZ gunfire incident was related in some way to the reappearance of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who kept a very low profile for much of April and was rumored to have been incapacitated or killed during heart surgery. Some South Korean media outlets have suggested the shots were fired to send some sort of message in connection with Kim’s reappearance at a fertilizer plant on Friday.