South Korea has fired artillery rounds towards North Korea after the dictatorship fired a projectile towards a South Korean loudspeaker that had been blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, the defence ministry in Seoul has said.
North Korea did not immediately respond to the shots, it said on Thursday, as tensions rose on the peninsula. South Korea said its detection equipment had spotted the trajectory of a suspected North Korean projectile, which did not appear to have damaged the loudspeaker or caused any injuries.
“Our military has stepped up monitoring and is closely watching North Korean military movements,” South Korea’s defence ministry said in a statement.
South Korea’s military raised its alert status to the highest level. There was no mention of the firing in North Korean state media, which does not typically make immediate comments on events.
The suspected North Korean projectile landed in an area about 35 miles (56km) north of Seoul in the western part of the border zone, the defence ministry said. South Korean residents in the area were ordered to evacuate, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Yonhap reported that the projectile appeared to have landed in a mountainous area near a South Korean military base in the town of Yeoncheon.
South Korea’s presidential office said it had convened a meeting of the national security council.
The exchange of fire was the first between the two Koreas since last October, when North Korean soldiers approached the border and did not retreat after the south fired warning shots, the South Korean defence ministry said at the time. The north’s soldiers fired back in an exchange of gunfire that lasted about 10 minutes, with no casualties.
Tension between the two countries has risen since early this month when landmine explosions in the demilitarised zone wounded two South Korean soldiers. Seoul accused North Korea of laying the mines, which Pyongyang has denied.
Seoul then began blasting anti-North Korean propaganda from loudspeakers on the border, resuming a tactic that both sides had halted in 2004.
North Korea on Saturday demanded that the south halt the broadcasts or face military action, and on Monday began conducting its own broadcasts. Thursday’s exchange of fire came amid ongoing annual joint US and South Korean military exercises, which began on Monday and which North Korea condemns as preparations for war.
The two Koreas have remained in a technical state of war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
According to  news agency, quoting 's main news agency  (KCNA), the country's military has been placed on high alert and has been told to prepare a "quasi-state of war". The report comes after North and  exchanged artillery fire yesterday.

"War maniacs of the South Korean puppet military made another grave provocation to the DPRK in the central western sector of the front on Thursday afternoon. They perpetrated such reckless action as firing 36 shells at KPA civil police posts under the absurd pretext that the KPA fired one shell at the south side. Six shells of them hit the area near KPA civil police posts 542 and 543 and other 15 shells fell near KPA civil police posts 250 and 251," said KCNA. "Foolhardy provocation deserves harsh punishment," it added; and, later, " issued an order of the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army KPA that the front-line large combined units of the KPA should enter a wartime state to be fully battle ready to launch surprise operations."

Yesterday, North Korea fired artillery rounds aimed at a loudspeaker in South Korea that broadcasts anti- propaganda into the North. "Commanders of the Korean People's Army were hastily dispatched to the front-line troops to command military operations to destroy psychological warfare tools if the enemy does not stop the propaganda broadcast within 48 hours and prepare against the enemy's possible counteractions," added KCNA.

No injuries or deaths were reported in the attacks from either side, but South Korea evacuated about 80 people in the town of  after at least one shell landed near the area. The South retaliated by firing dozens of rounds of artillery into the north.

South Korea had recently started to broadcast propaganda from loudspeakers after an 11-year lull. The broadcasts began on August 10 and South Korea says the broadcasts will continue. After the exchange of fire, North Korea stated it would attack any loudspeakers broadcasting propaganda and would respond, militarily, within 48 hours if the broadcasts do not stop.

Both countries have put their militaries on high levels of alert.


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