South and North Korean border guards exchanged fire across the military demarcation line in the demilitarized zone on Sunday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff here.

Around a dozen North Korean soldiers approached the MDL in the DMZ in Paju about 6 km west of the truce village of Panmunjom at around 8 a.m.

The South Korean military issued several verbal warnings.

When the North Korean soldiers kept coming regardless, it fired warning shots at them in the early evening.

"Right after the warning shots, we found two bullets near a guard post presumably fired by North Korean soldiers," a JCS officer said. "Then our soldiers shot back at them."

Both South and North Korean troops fired scores of bullets from machine guns.

There were neither casualties or damage to facilities, but tourists and farmers were evacuated from nearby areas just in case.

The previous day, North Korean soldiers also approached the M DL in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, and the South Korean military issued verbal warnings and fired warning shots.

An officer speculated that the series of recent provocations are a premeditated provocation by the North to seize the agenda in high-level inter-Korean talks scheduled for late this month or early next month.

