South Korea’s military said it fired warning shots after several North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border on Sunday, in a development that could further stoke tensions on the peninsula.

Several of the North Korean soldiers were armed but many had equipment for maintenance work, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a news briefing Tuesday. The JCS did not say how many shots were fired or how many soldiers breached the divide.

A JCS official who was not identified was cited by Yonhap News as saying more than 10 soldiers crossed the line for a short period of time, entering a few dozen yards into South Korean territory.

The incident took place shortly before North Korean official media quoted the sister of leader Kim Jong Un as saying Pyongyang planned reprisals against South Korea after it resumed loudspeaker broadcasts over the weekend for the first time in years, signaling an escalation of tensions along one of the world’s most militarized borders.

Tensions rose late last month when North Korea began sending hundreds of balloons carrying trash over the border after complaining about South Korea conducting surveillance flights. The move also appeared to be in response to South Korean activists earlier in May sending balloons into North Korea that contained anti-Pyongyang messages.

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(With assistance from Seyoon Kim.)

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