SoKo military fires warning shots at NoKo soldiers at border

It's getting kind of hairy at the border of South and North Korea.

The South Korean military fired 20 warning shots Thursday when North Korean soldiers approached a borderline after one of their own defected to South Korea, according to officials.

South Korean media reported sounds of gunfire from the North after the warning shots were fired but South Korean officials could not immediately confirm this.

NoKo soldiers have on occasion fled through the land border, and many have done so safely. The Thursday defection came about 40 days after another North Korean soldier crossed the jointly controlled area at the border, where both sides are merely several feet away from each other.

The Thursday morning defection took place at a different section of the border and the personal details of the soldier weren't disclosed.

When the soldier arrived at a front-line South Korean guard post, the North did not fire on the position. But later Thursday, South Korea's military saw North Korean soldiers approaching a military demarcation line at the border before firing 20 rounds of warning shots from machine guns, said a South Korean defense official who requested anonymity based on department rules.

Thursday's defection makes this the fourth by North Korean soldiers who fled through the land border this year. Approximately 30,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea, usually through China, since the armistice in 1953 to stop the fighting in the Korean War.

It appears the main reason for the defections is due to the high level of sucking attributed to North Korea by its own people as well as the rest of the free world.


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