SEOUL, August 22. /TASS/. The Republic of Korea will fire for effect aiming at North Korean units if they fire on loudspeakers installed in the Demilitarised Zone, a high-ranking representative of South Korea's ministry of national defence said in a response to a question from TASS during a briefing in Seoul on Saturday.
"In case of fire on broadcasting stations in the Demilitarised Zone, our armed forces will counterattack the units, which open fire and their supporting units," the representative said.
He continued saying usually the South Korean armed forces are using the approach of a proportional response.
"Our military would find a target depending on the threat they are facing, and act proportionally to it," he said. "If fired from a machine-gun, their response is firing from a machine-gun, in case of an artillery fire they use artillery fire in response."
However, the representative would not specify whether the military would observe the approach in case the loudspeakers are fired as the North Korean ultimatum term expires.
The briefing’s condition was non-revealing of the participants’ names or positions.
On August 19, North Korea sent a letter to the UN Security Council requesting to convene an urgent meeting amid the US-South Korean military exercises that Pyongyang says pose a threat to the international peace and security.
Diplomats say so far no UN Security Council meetings have been scheduled.
The situation on the Korean peninsula deteriorated seriously on Thursday after the North and South exchanged artillery fire in the western part of the Demilitarized Zone. Seoul claims the North was the first to open fire and the artillery shelling was aimed at the South’s propaganda loudspeakers installed nearby. Pyongyang rejects the allegations.
On August 20, North Korea forwarded an ultimatum to South Korea to stop broadcasting propaganda through loudspeakers, to dismantle the equipment within next 48 hours and threatened military action otherwise. The deadline expires on Saturday. Seoul declared it would not meet Pyongyang’s demands.