Blasts inside the world’s most heavily fortified border zone have reignited tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with South Korea’s military demanding an apology from North Korea over a 21 September explosion that badly hurt three South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
“South Korean soldiers sustained serious injuries from North Korean landmines while conducting normal search operations south of the Military Demarcation Line,” Kang Hyun-woo, chief director of operations of Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.
“This is a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement and undermines the spirit of existing inter-Korean agreements; it must be stopped immediately,” he said, adding “we strongly urge an apology and responsible measures”.
Mr Kang delivered the message in an unusually stern manner, glaring into the camera and reading the statement in a raised voice.
The demand comes after Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, rejected Seoul’s claims that Pyongyang was responsible for the landmine blasts, according to state media.
The assertion over the explosions “is too low and dirty as befitting the tribes of the ROK”, Ms Kim said in a statement, the KCNA news agency reported, referring to the South’s formal name, the Republic of Korea.
Kim Yo Jong (file image)
South Korea and North Korea remain technically at war because the Korean conflict ended with a truce rather than a peace treaty, and landmine incidents have repeatedly served as flashpoints between the rivals.
One of the three South Korean officers seriously injured in the explosion inside the DMZ — the mined buffer that has separated the two countries since the 1953 armistice — lost his foot.
Following an investigation, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it determined that North Korean mines were “highly suspected” of triggering the two explosions.
“This is a clear violation of the armistice agreement, and since North Korea bears responsibility, we will take corresponding measures,” South Korean Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul said.
Ms Kim, however, accused the South of “cooking up” false allegations to justify political and military provocation against North Korea, KCNA said.
Since 2024, after Mr Kim labelled South Korea his country’s “principal enemy”, Pyongyang’s military has laid mines and erected anti-tank barriers along the frontier as part of efforts to permanently seal it off.
As part of that work, Pyongyang also blew up the northern sections of inter-Korean roads that are no longer used.
Mr Kang said the North Korean mines tied to the 21 September incident were believed to have been placed during Pyongyang’s border-fortification operations.
The DMZ has seen similar episodes before. In a 2015 landmine incident, two South Korean soldiers were seriously wounded on the southern side of the zone, with one losing both legs.
Seoul said at the time that North Korean troops had crossed the Military Demarcation Line to plant the mines — an allegation Pyongyang denied.
That 2015 blast also led South Korea to restart anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker broadcasts along the border.
