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			 The warning came as South Korean President Park Geun-hye 
			reiterated on Monday her commitment to engage with the North, 
			despite what she called "the dual nature" of ties, saying the "door 
			was always open to dialogue". 
 South Korea said the North Korean firing was a "provocative act" 
			that had violated the truce suspending their 1950-53 war and the 
			complaint was reiterated in a notice the South sent the North late 
			on Sunday.
 
 "It is a stern warning of a strong response in the event of further 
			provocation," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok 
			told a briefing.
 
 The exchange of fire on Friday began after North Korea fired shots 
			at balloons carrying leaflets sent towards the North by South Korean 
			activists critical of the North's leadership.
 
			
			 North Korea has long criticised the leaflet drops as provocative and 
			it has threatened to respond to them with force. But before Friday, 
			it had never done so.
 No one was hurt in the firing.
 
 North Korea's state media said on Saturday that expected talks with 
			the South to try to improve ties were in danger of being cancelled 
			because authorities in South Korea had allowed the activists to 
			float their balloons.
 
 "The leaflet-scattering operation ... was a premeditated and 
			deliberate politically motivated provocation perpetrated under the 
			backstage wire-pulling of the U.S. and the South Korean 
			authorities," the North's KCNA news agency said.
 
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			North Korea sent a high-level delegation on a surprise visit to the 
			South on Oct. 4 and the two sides agreed to reopen dialogue, which 
			has been stalled since February, late this month or early next.
 Private groups in the South, often led by defectors from the North, 
			cite their constitutional freedom of expression in releasing their 
			balloons.
 
 The South's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the 
			North, repeated on Monday it had no legal justification to stop the 
			leaflet drops but said authorities may try to step in to prevent 
			them on the basis of ensuring public safety.
 
 (Reporting By Sohee Kim; Editing by Robert Birsel)
 
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