South Korea says North Korean mines behind DMZ blast violated armistice

SEOUL – South Korea’s Defence Minister said on Sept 29 that North Korean mines caused a blast last week that injured two South Korean personnel in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), adding that the incident violated the Korean War armistice agreement and warranted a response from Seoul.Kang Shin-chul told a parliamentary committee that the mines appeared to have been planted in the area as part of North Korea’s border fortification work near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that bisects the DMZ separating the two Koreas.“The responsibility lies with North Korea, so we will take corresponding measures,” he said, adding the military had response options available and would implement them in stages, while declining to elaborate.Kang also said Seoul would seek to engage North Korea directly over the incident.“We will strongly urge them to come to the table so that we can verify the facts together,” he said.Kang said the intent in question was whether North Korea had emplaced the mines knowing South Korean troops could enter the area and suffer harm.A member of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a probe conducted with the United Nations Command (UNC) found an additional North Korean resin anti-personnel mine near the Sept 21 blast site.JCS vice-chairman Kwon Dae-won said the mines did not appear to have drifted into the blast area and that the UNC assessed they were found clearly south of the MDL.Following a similar incident in 2015 in which South Korean troops were injured by North Korean mines, Seoul resumed anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts across the DMZ, triggering a military stand-off that ended with a high-level inter-Korean agreement.Seoul’s dialogue push testedThe latest blast comes at a time when South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sought to draw North Korea back to dialogue, after Pyongyang declared the South an enemy state and abandoned its longstanding goal of peaceful reunification.Cho Han-bum of the Korea Institute for National Unification said the incident could complicate Lee’s effort to improve ties with Pyongyang, but Seoul was unlikely to abandon attempts at dialogue altogether.“Given its peace policy stance, the (Lee) administration has little alternative but to deal with this through established procedures,” he said, adding that the President would need to balance a response to the incident with its broader efforts to stabilise relations with Pyongyang.North Korean state media has not commented on the incident. The country’s mission to the UN and embassies in Beijing and Singapore did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.The UNC also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on South Korean officials’ statements. REUTERS