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A soldier with South Korea’s 7th Infantry Division uses binoculars from his perch in a general outpost (GOP) in the summer of 2023. (courtesy of the ROK Army)

North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the land border with South Korea on Sunday but went back over to their side after warning shots from South Korean troops, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Tuesday.

The Joint Chiefs described the incident in a message to the Ministry of National Defense press corps. “A group of North Korean soldiers who had been working in the DMZ in the central portion of the front briefly crossed the MDL at 12:30 pm on June 9. But after a verbal warning and warning shots from our military, they returned to the north. Aside from the North Korean troops immediately returning to their side after warning shots by our troops, there were no incidents of note.”

Military tensions were high on both sides at the time of the brief crossing because the South Korean military was preparing to initiate broadcasts from loudspeakers in response to North Korea’s launch of balloons filled with garbage. If the North Korean troops had returned fire, it could have escalated into an armed clash between the two sides.

“At least 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the MDL by no more than 50 meters. As soon as [our troops] fired warning shots, they crossed back over the MDL,” said a source with the Joint Chiefs.

“The North Korean soldiers presumably crossed the MDL after getting lost while clearing brush and digging with pickaxes and other tools. That doesn’t happen very often,” the source explained.

South Korean troops never cross the MDL because they can precisely track its location with GPS and other observation equipment. But North Korea’s equipment is not as precise, so troops occasionally cross the MDL while working on the front in the summer, when the grass is high.

Despite common perceptions, there is no barbed wire separating South and North Korea along the Military Demarcation Line — the official border between the Koreas. Rather, there are 1,292 markers in the ground joining an invisible line running for 240 km across the Korean Peninsula from west to east.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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