South Korea fires warning shots at North Korean patrol near border

South Korean soldiers fired warning shots at a patrol from North Korea to turn it back from the two sides' border, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said Monday, according to CNN.

About 10 North Korean soldiers approached the Military Demarcation Line around 9:40 a.m. Monday, said the official, who declined to be identified.

"After a warning broadcast, the South Korean side fired about 20 rounds of warning shots," the official said.

The North Koreans didn't fire any shots back and retreated from the heavily fortified area -- near Paju City, northwest of Seoul -- around three hours after the initial confrontation, the official said.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency hadn't published any mention of the incident as of Monday afternoon.

Tensions periodically flare along the line that divides the two Koreas, which technically remain at war from their conflict in the 1950s. They signed a ceasefire but not a formal peace treaty in 1953.