Second clash along border in 10 days comes despite hopes of easing animosities after rare visit by North Korean officials

Troops exchanged gunfire on Sunday along the border between North and South Korea, the second outbreak of hostilities in the past 10 days. There were no reports of injuries or damage, but the 10 minutes of shooting highlighted rising tensions between the divided countries.

The shootout began after North Korea sent soldiers close to the border in an attempt, analysts said, to put pressure on the South to stop leafleting its citizens. The previous conflict came when North Korea opened fire on balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets that were floating over the border. South Korean activist groups, mostly made up of North Korean defectors, said they were determined to continue sending the leaflets.

South Korean said its soldiers fired warning shots at about 10 North Korean soldiers who were approaching the military demarcation line inside the demilitarised zone that bisects the Korean peninsula. Two shots believed to have been fired by North Korean soldiers were found at a South Korean guard post.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said the North Korean soldiers turned back after the shooting. North Korea opened fire on 10 October after activists floated propaganda balloons across the border, following through on a previous threat to attack. There were no reports of casualties from that incident either.

North Korea has repeatedly demanded South Korea ban activists from sending leaflets, which often urge North Korean citizens to rise up against its leader, Kim Jong-un. South Korea has refused, saying activists are exercising freedom of speech.

Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute thinktank, said the exchange of gunfire on Sunday showed that North Korea was intentionally escalating military tension to spread fear about possible casualties should leafleting continue.

The latest exchanges of gunfire serve as a reminder of long-running tensions between the Koreas despite earlier hopes of easing animosities after a group of top North Korean officials made a rare visit to South Korea early this month and agreed to resume senior-level talks.

However, only days after the North Koreans’ visit, naval ships of the two Koreas traded gunfire near their disputed western sea border, the scene of several bloody maritime skirmishes in recent years.

Generals from both sides met at a border village last week in their first military talks in more than three years to discuss how to ease the recent spike in tensions, but the meeting ended with no agreement and no prospects to meet again.

The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea.