SEOUL July 17 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ...

SEOUL July 17 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAIL)

North and toward the south Korean troops traded gunfire across the demilitarized climate (DMZ) between their two countries early Thursday morning, southward Korean military officials said.

southward Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that small arms fire came from the North Korean side of the cessation of arms line between the countries about 6:10 a.m. and the southern Korean troops immediately responded fire.

In the minute-long exchange, the southern Koreans reportedly fired 17 projectiles into the North in replication to four shots fired at them.

No individual was wounded in the firefight.

Sporadic violence between North and southern Korean troops has occurr many times since the 1953 breathing-time that ended the ''Korean Conflict'' and station up the DMZ, but until Thursday the ''no man's land'' between the pair Koreas had been relatively quiet.

The greatest in quantity recent previous DMZ incident was in November 2001 although the navies of the rival Koreas clashed in the sea on the farther side the Korean coast a year ago.

Four southern Koreans were killed and as many as 30 North Koreans were believed killed or panged in that battle.

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