TOKYO (Sputnik) – On Thursday, North Korea fired shells at a South Korean military base across the demilitarized zone. Seoul responded by firing back dozens of heavy artillery rounds.
"We cannot help having doubts about North Korea's sincerity over holding dialogue with South Korea," ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said at a Friday press briefing, as quoted by the South Korean Yonhap News Agency.
The first major armed clash between the neighbors in five years came in the wake of Seoul’s resumed broadcasting of military propaganda over the border toward North Korea, a practice it had suspended over a decade earlier.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un ordered the country’s army to bring the frontline troops to full combat readiness on Friday, following the Thursday exchange of fire between North and South Korea.
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense warned on Friday that it would carry out a tough response if the North continued to escalate tensions.
