South Korea's military said on Wednesday it was conducting an operation near the heavily fortified border with North Korea after detecting an unidentified person.
The operation was underway around the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas on the eastern region, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.
The person was spotted crossing barbed wire fences installed along the border at 7:26 pm on Tuesday (1026 GMT), prompting the military to dispatch a large search team, the News1 agency reported, citing an unnamed military source.
The Yonhap news agency said the military has issued a "Jindotgae" anti-infiltration alert for the eastern border area.
The defence ministry declined to confirm those reports, citing an ongoing investigation.
The operation came as South Korea on Wednesday restarted tours to the southern part of the DMZ, which has seen several armed clashes but also served as a venue for key inter-Korean events, including some of the most recent summits.
But the programme was suspended in October 2019 after an outbreak of deadly African swine fever broke out in North Korea, and then amid concerns about the novel coronavirus this year.
Published 04 November 2020, 04:31 IST