Updated 5:09 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) – The North and South Koreas exchanged artillery fire, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Friday, citing a military source in Seoul.
“Two Koreas exchange artillery fire,” the agency said.
According to South Korean media reports, the two Koreas exchanged heavy fire after South Korean activists fired big balloons filled with gas with 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets attached to them on to the territory of North Korea. The campaign was authorized by Seoul.
North Korean authorities have repeatedly urged Seoul to stop such actions and threatened to shell the area from which activists carry out their launches.
During last weekend's visit of top-ranking Pyongyang's officials to the closing of the Asian Games in Icheon, South Korea, the two nations agreed to hold the first high-level talks in months.
The Korean Peninsula is formally in a state of war, as no peace treaty was ever signed after the Korean War of 1950-1953. Relations between North and South Korea worsened in 2010, when Seoul's Cheonan warship was sunk in the Yellow Sea. A South Korean investigation determined the vessel was hit by a North Korean torpedo.
On November 23, 2010, the disputed island of Yeonpyeongdo was shelled by North Korean artillery, according to South Korean reports. The incident killed two soldiers, with another 17 wounded.
