By Kyu-seok Shim
SEOUL, Oct 20 (Reuters) - South Korea on Tuesday vowed a stern response if North Korea acts on threats to strengthen its military posture along the border, which have fueled tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In a statement, Seoul's Defence Ministry expressed grave concern over Pyongyang's threats to deploy additional tactical strike weapons along the border and resume loudspeaker broadcasts towards the South.
The escalation and exchange of threats has raised the possibility of clashes along the heavily armed border and undercuts diplomatic gains made by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung soon after he took office.
The ministry said South Korea's broadcasts and warning shots near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) were a "legitimate defensive measure" aimed at preventing incursions and forcing North Korean troops who crossed the line to withdraw.
"If North Korea uses our legitimate measures as a pretext to carry out further provocations, we will punish it resolutely,” the ministry said.
It urged Pyongyang to stop making what it called groundless claims, halt incursions across the MDL and respond to efforts to resolve differences between the two sides over the line.
'CLEAR PROVOCATION'
Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Jin Young-seung reviewed military readiness while visiting a frontline army command, and ordered operations aimed at strengthening Seoul’s initiative in the Demilitarized Zone, its military said in a separate statement.
"We cannot tolerate North Korea falsely characterising our legitimate operational measures as provocations and shifting responsibility for heightened military tensions onto our military,” Jin said.
He said North Korea was responsible for planting landmines south of the MDL that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers last month, calling the incident “a clear provocation” and a violation of the armistice agreement.
The warnings from Seoul came after North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, accused the South Korean military of endangering North Korean soldiers by firing warning shots during Pyongyang’s work to fortify the border.
Her threat to revive North Korean loudspeaker broadcasts risks reversing a key de-escalation measure that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has touted as an early achievement of his efforts to restart diplomacy with Pyongyang.
North Korea has been installing mines and barriers along the border since April 2024. South Korea said this month that Pyongyang had deployed as many as 7,000 workers to the area this year and that North Korean personnel had crossed the MDL on about 50 occasions.
Analysts said the standoff increased the risk of a military clash.
"If North Korea’s threshold falls below South Korea’s existing rules of engagement, the simple repetition of current procedures could be enough to create the conditions for a clash,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
Michael Bosack, founding director of the Parley Policy Institute and a former UN Command official, said troops could mistake warning shots for missed attacks, risking “misinterpretation of intent and potential counterfires.”
(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Saad Sayeed)
