SEOUL, October 23 (AJP) -North Korea has planted nearly one million land mines in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) over the last two years, the South Korea military reported during the parliamentary hearing period.
The military estimated that North Korean troops had laid about 960,000 mines during the period, according to multiple lawmakers’ offices on the National Assembly’s intelligence and defense committees.
Pyongyang has been reinforcing the frontier after redefining the two Koreas as “two hostile states” and abandoning its longstanding policy of pursuing reunification, Seoul presumed.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young during parliamentary hearing earlier this month estimated 200 mine along the border, suggesting half of them planted newly over the last two years.
The DMZ separates two heavily armed militaries and acts a buffer zone under the 1953 armistice by requiring each side to withdraw two kilometers from the Military Demarcation Line, the boundary running through it.
North Korea began intensifying its border fortification work in April 2024. Alongside minefields, troops have cleared vegetation, erected barriers and fencing, built military roads and blocked former cross-border transport links that once symbolized reconciliation.
A road near Arrowhead Hill, created under a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement for joint recovery of Korean War remains, was among the routes subsequently mined by the North.
The construction has brought North Korean troops repeatedly across the Military Demarcation Line, prompting South Korean warning broadcasts and warning shots. Pyongyang has challenged Seoul’s account of the crossings and accused the South of threatening its personnel.
The danger became immediate on Sept. 21, when mine explosions south of the demarcation line injured three South Korean soldiers, two seriously.
The troops were clearing a route for a joint inspection with the U.N. Command into suspected North Korean mine-laying. An initial military investigation placed the explosions about 10 meters south of the line.
A subsequent joint investigation by the South Korean military and the U.N. Command concluded that North Korean mines caused the blasts. Pyongyang rejected the accusation as a “fabricated farce.”
South Korea said Thursday it would send a letter to the U.N. Security Council demanding that North Korea apologize and take responsibility.
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