South Korea shells North after rocket attack

People watch television news reporting on North Korea's rocket firing at a railway station in Seoul on Thursday. -AFP

SEOUL: South Korea on Thursday fired dozens of shells into North Korea after detecting a rocket fired across the heavily-militarised border from the North, Seoul’s defence ministry said.

The exchange of fire came at a time of elevated cross-border tensions, following mine blasts that maimed two members of a South Korean border patrol earlier this month and the launch this week of a major South Korea-US military exercise.