Tensions between North Korea and South Korea are running high this week after Pyongyang sent a letter to the UN Security Council repeating accusations that Seoul fabricated a September landmine incident, and after a North Korean howitzer was spotted close to the border, Reuters reported on Monday.

Source: Reuters

A Reuters witness at an observatory in South Korea overlooking the heavily armed border confirmed on Monday the presence of a North Korean artillery piece positioned in clear view near the frontier. South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Sunday identified the weapon as a self-propelled 122-mm howitzer, saying its deployment near the border marked a rare public display of such artillery.

Source: Reuters / Yonhap

Reuters also observed three North Korean armoured vehicles with their gun barrels pointed south, as well as about 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers carrying out fencing work inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). Yonhap cited photographs taken from an observatory in the South Korean border city of Gimpo that appeared to show the howitzer and North Korean troops conducting drills on the coast of Kaepung county, about 1.5 km from the observatory.

Source: Reuters

122-mmCalibre of the self-propelled howitzer identified by Yonhap
3North Korean armoured vehicles observed with barrels pointed south, per Reuters
20-30North Korean soldiers seen doing fencing work inside the DMZ, per Reuters

"It is highly unusual (for North Korea) to expose its self-propelled artillery so conspicuously," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University in Seoul. By deliberately displaying it, he said, North Korea is signalling through action that it intends to enforce its border policy through force rather than dialogue, and is warning South Korea to exercise caution to prevent an accidental clash.

Source: Reuters

North Korean state media KCNA reported that in the letter sent on Sunday, the country's UN representative said Seoul was using the landmine incident to depict Pyongyang's border construction as a military incursion. North Korea warned in the letter that violations of its sovereignty could trigger self-defence measures and that South Korea would be "wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences." Those are North Korea's allegations, not an independent finding.

Source: KCNA via Reuters

The letter answers a South Korean letter to the Security Council last week, which said a September 21 blast in the DMZ — which injured three South Korean soldiers — was planted by North Korean troops and violated the Korean War Armistice Agreement. The UN Command, which oversees the DMZ, has said a North Korean mine across the line violated the armistice. Pyongyang has denied responsibility.

Source: Reuters / Al Jazeera

A spokesperson for South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Monday that the North Korean letter appears to repeat North Korea's existing position and seeks to justify its border-line marking work. The ministry had no separate comment on the howitzer. Seoul has proposed dialogue with North Korea to defuse border tensions, and says its military fires warning shots only to send North Korean soldiers back when they cross the military demarcation line inside the DMZ.

Source: Reuters