A South Korean soldier mistakenly fired a machine gun near the border with the North, prompting the military to immediately warn Pyongyang that it was unintentional fire, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday.
Four live ammunition was mistakenly fired during a drill Saturday night at the northern border in Gangwon province, Yonhap said, citing army officers.
All of these projectiles fell on the south side and apparently did no damage.
Read alsoTension is rising between the two Koreas
The South Korean unit immediately informed the North that the shots were unintentional and increased its vigilance, officers said.
"
No particular signs from the north have been detected and an investigation is underway to determine the exact circumstances of the incident
," a military official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1953 armistice and are separated by a demilitarized zone (DMZ) four kilometers wide and 250 kilometers long.
Despite its name, the DMZ is one of the most fortified places in the world because it is riddled with minefields and bristling with barbed wire.
The last firefight between the two sides was in May 2020, when at least four North Korean bullets hit a South Korean guard post in the central part of the DMZ, prompting a response from Seoul.
Pyongyang soldiers also fired on a defector in 2017, but the South did not retaliate this time.
