PYONGYANG/SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean military on Tuesday conducted "a serious provocation," firing more than 10 warning shots at soldiers of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday.

The DPRK soldiers were working on a permanent barrier project near the southern border line at that time, the KCNA said, citing a senior military official in its report.

The provocation is a "serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area where a huge number of forces are stationing in confrontation with each other to the uncontrollable phase and the DPRK army is keeping tabs on the present situation," said Ko Jong Chol, vice-chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, in a press statement issued on Friday.

At present, the DPRK army is conducting a barrier project to permanently block the southern border with South Korea as part of the regular work to reinforce the border, said the statement.

Completely separating the territory is "the undertaking to eliminate the factor of escalated tension in the militarily acute southern border area and secure the stable environment," which poses no threat to anyone, it said.

To prevent misunderstanding and accidental conflict, the DPRK army had already informed the U.S. forces of the barrier project on June 25 and July 18, the statement added.

The U.S. forces accepted this as a sincere measure for detente and confirmed that the project by the DPRK personnel is being conducted within the sovereign territory of the DPRK, it said.

"If the act of restraining or obstructing the project unrelated to the military character persists, our army will regard it as (a) deliberate military provocation and take corresponding countermeasure(s)," Ko said in the statement.

In response, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Saturday that some of the DPRK troops had crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) while working inside the demilitarized zone at about 3 p.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Tuesday.

The JCS said that the South Korean forces had fired warning shots and the DPRK soldiers moved north of the MDL later. The South Korean military is keeping a close eye on the moves of the DPRK forces, it said. ■