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.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Oct/13/images/ads/current/pest_control_bch_092414.png) 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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