South Korea on Monday proposed military talks with North Korea to prevent accidental armed clashes along their tense border, following a series of incidents in which North Korean troops allegedly crossed the military demarcation line.

Seoul’s military says it has fired warning shots multiple times in recent months to drive back North Korean soldiers who strayed over the border while reinforcing front-line positions. Pyongyang has denied the incursions and warned of retaliation.

Kim Hong-Cheol, South Korea’s deputy defense minister for national defense policy, said the repeated border violations may stem from differing interpretations of the military demarcation line, as many original posts set after the 1950–53 Korean War have disappeared. He said talks are needed to “prevent accidental conflict and reduce tensions.”

It remains uncertain whether North Korea will respond. Pyongyang has rejected all dialogue with Seoul and Washington since nuclear negotiations between leader Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. Trump has said he wants to resume talks, but Kim has insisted that the U.S. must drop denuclearization demands before any meeting.

Analysts say the latest proposal reflects the liberal government of President Lee Jae Myung’s push to reopen communication channels with the North. However, in August, senior North Korean official Kim Yo Jong dismissed Seoul’s outreach as a “sinister intention.”

Tensions have grown since Kim Jong Un last year abandoned the North’s decades-old goal of peaceful unification and ordered constitutional changes labeling South Korea a permanent enemy. Seoul says North Korea has since expanded anti-tank barriers and laid additional mines along the frontier.

The two Koreas share a 248-kilometer-long, four-kilometer-wide border, one of the world’s most heavily fortified, lined with mines, barbed wire, tank traps and thousands of troops — a reminder that the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.