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TOKYO: North Korea says “South Korean military belligerents carried out a serious provocation” by firing warning shots from a machine gun at soldiers installing barriers on the northern side of the border between the two countries.

Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol issued a statement saying it was “a very worrying sign that the situation along the southern border, where huge armed forces are confronting each other, is spiraling out of control.”

General Ko said the construction of barriers aims at permanently closing the southern border to “eliminate factors that could escalate tensions and ensure a stable environment that will not pose a threat to anyone.”

The statement said the North had notified the US military, “which holds command authority over the South Korean military,” of its intention to construct the barriers along the border and “the US military has taken this as a sincere measure to ease tensions and confirmed that the construction activities of our personnel are being carried out entirely within our sovereign territory.”

The North said provocations continued with threats to shoot and suggested this raising of tensions coincided with large-scale joint military exercises in order to provoke the North. “All the facts clearly prove that the sinister ulterior motives of the US and South Korean warmongers who seek military confrontation with us have not changed in the slightest.”

General Ko added: “I would like to make it clear that if an extremely dangerous situation arises in the southern border area, where enormous armed forces are confronting each other, and advance notice is ignored, we will not be held responsible for any serious consequences that may result.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army issued a statement on the “Ulchi Freedom Shield” military exercises, stating that it was “a training exercise aimed at launching a surprise pre-emptive strike against our country.”

“The reckless war games conducted by the warmongers of the United States and South Korea are seriously threatening our nation’s security environment and pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region as a whole to extreme heightened tensions,” the spokesman said. “Our military’s all-out readiness to completely suppress and crush any hostile military action against our nation will be further strengthened.”