Seoul - 17 July 2003
1. Briefing by South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Defence Ministry
2. Reporters at the briefing
3. Pull out from a map showing where fire was exchanged
4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Major Lee Hong-ki, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff:
"Today North Korean soldiers fired at our guard post on the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone). North Korean soldiers fired four rounds of (suspected) machine gun at our guard post at 6 a.m."
5. Various of the briefing
6. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Major Lee Hong-ki, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff:
"In response, our (South Korean) soldiers fired back seventeen rounds of machine gun at 6:11a.m according to the rules of engagement. At the same time we issued a warning broadcast to North Korea. There has not been any response from North Korea until now. No casualties were caused by the North Korean soldiers' firing. Now the Joint Chiefs of Staff are investigating the possibility of intentional provocation."
File - DMZ, 1999
7. Various of South Korean soldiers patrolling Military Demarcation Line (MDL/border line) inside of DMZ (Demilitarised Zone).
8. Wide shot of North Korean guard post near MDL
9. Travelling shot of S. Korean soldiers point gun
10. Medium shot of an armed S. Korean soldier
Seoul - 17 July 2003
11. Map showing area where incident took place map
12. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Major Lee Hong-ki, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff
"After the investigation and based on the result of the investigation, we will take appropriate measures about the incident."
13. Zoom out of Major Lee explaining the incident using the map
14. Cutaway
15. Major Lee explaining the incident
There was a brief exchange of fire between South and North Korean soldiers along their border on Thursday.
The South Korean military said it did not suffer casualties.
It was not immediately known whether any North Korean troops were injured or killed in the firefight in the Demilitarised Zone, a buffer area that was created at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War to keep opposing armies apart.
Tension on the Korean Peninsula is high over North Korea's suspected development of nuclear weapons, though such shooting incidents in the DMZ are rare.
In recent years, however, negotiations and reconciliation efforts have moved forward despite such outbreaks of violence.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Dan Hetlage said "The Pentagon is aware of the incident but has no comment."
Major Lee of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean fire came from a machine gun, and that the South was using a machine gun called a K-3.
Three of the North Korean bullets hit the wall of a South Korean guard post three-hundred meters away, according to the South Korean military.
The South Koreans issued a loudspeaker broadcast after returning fire, telling the North Koreans that they were in "clear violation" of the terms of the armistice that ended the Korean War.
"Immediately stop the provocation," said the broadcast.
The shootout occurred on a national holiday in South Korea that commemorates its 1948 Constitution. The Koreas were divided at the end of World War II.
Under the armistice, North and South Korean soldiers can patrol in the DMZ, but they are not allowed to move around with heavy weapons such as machine guns.
Lee, who did not give his first name, said the incident happened near the South Korean town of Yonchon, sixty kilometres (thirty-five miles) north of the South Korean capital, Seoul.
The nuclear dispute flared in October when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted it had a clandestine nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement with Washington.
The United States and its allies suspended fuel shipments promised under the 1994 deal, and Pyongyang retaliated by expelling U.N. nuclear monitors, restarting nuclear facilities and withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
