Reports coming in of shots fired toward South Korean guard post at the DMZ, South Korean forces returned fire. No reports if casualties as of now. Mostly twitter sources at this point. Hopefully it was an isolated incident.

https://m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200503002400325

SEOUL, May 3 (Yonhap) -- Multiple bullets from North Korea hit a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), prompting the South to broadcast a warning and fire back, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The gunshots hit the guard unit in the central border town of Cheorwon at around 7:41 a.m.. No casualties or damage to South Korean facilities were reported, according to the JCS.
Following the incident, the military issued broadcast warnings, and fired back twice, it added.
"We are taking actions via inter-Korean communication lines to grasp the detailed situation and to prevent any further incidents. And we also maintain a necessary readiness posture," the JCS said in a release.

Well...that is disconcerting.

I know this type of incident has happened in the past so I wonder if this is a 'just another Sunday afternoon in the DMZ' deal, or, as I'm guessing, a fairly significant excursion from the norm. It strikes me as significant that the JCS issued a release on the incident.

Hmm, Kim Jong Un miraculously rises from the dead...and rounds lobbed into the DMZ'...coincidence?

I would have thought it was a rare occasion for actual gunfire to be exchanged across the DMZ. Wikipedia does have a list of North Vs South Korean hostile events, and the DMZ fire had occured in the past without much fanfare.

Starving NORK soldiers probably saw a rabbit.

quote:

Well...that is disconcerting.

Exactly.

Eh, think like a paranoid dictatorship. Their top boy went all Schroedinger's cat on them, then apparently showed up again.

It's a norm in international relations that when a country's chief executive is sick or wounded or something, the country's military goes on alert and may take a more forward posture here and there to dissuade any other countries from attacking while the C-in-C is out of commission.

In North Korea they don't want to start any shit if they're not sure their C-in-C is there to make their little robot military and its carefully divided leadership work. Once Kim's back in action the Norks go ahead and fire a few shots to make the point that Kim's OK and the Norks are confident enough that they're willing to fight. If Kim isn't actually OK, then the Norks may be paranoid and desperate enough to fire a few shots in the hopes that they're brushing South Korea and the US back while the Norks deal with some kind of transition.

IOW, to a Nork, this may be like an engraved card saying "Everything's back to normal!"

Nothing to see there. "North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post \ South Korea fired two rounds in response". That'd be a slow day in Chicago.

https://komonews.com/news/nati...long-n-korean-border

Here was something but nothing was made of it:

quote:

ROKS Cheonan sinking

The ROKS Cheonan sinking occurred on 26 March 2010, when Cheonan, a Pohang-class corvette of the Republic of Korea Navy, carrying 104 personnel, sank off the country's west coast near Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 seamen. The cause of the sinking remains in dispute, although evidence points to North Korea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROKS_Cheonan_sinking

I'm a few miles from the DMZ, in South Korea at the moment. There doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement here about it.

I knew 2 officers that were stationed on the Korean DMZ during Vietnam. They both told me at least weekly squad sized foray's went across. At that time all US troops on the DMZ received combat pay.

I was stationed just below the DMZ, '65-'67. There were a few incidents but not many. I can only remember going on alert once.

Was this rifle fire? Surely there are heavier weapons emplaced in the DMZ? 'Tis always better to give than to receive, especially when it comes to lead.

The NK boys on guard duty had a little too much homemade hootch and got a little trigger happy.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
Nothing to see there. "North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post \ South Korea fired two rounds in response". That'd be a slow day eight minutes in Chicago.

Fixed it for you.

Was there 69/70 and spent some time on and inside the DMZ with a 105mm howitzer field artillery unit. The border length broken into 3 sections with the ROK Army (South Korea) having the eastern/western ends and the US Army had the middle section. When North Korea would act up they would only do it in the area controled by the US Army because they knew our hands were tied and would not retailate. there were several "incidents" that could have started WWIII but the US public had very little knowledge of what was actually happening........................drill sgt.