Seoul Blames North Korean Mines for DMZ Blasts
Seoul's armed forces have urged Pyongyang to issue an apology over explosions caused by landmines along the two countries' mutual frontier, which left South Korean troops hurt earlier in the month. On 21 September, three South Korean service members sustained injuries in blasts inside the Demilitarised Zone, the strip of land that divides the two Koreas. On Tuesday, Seoul stated that the explosions, which took place on its own side of the DMZ, were very probably triggered by North Korean mines, and promised to respond in kind to what it called a breach of a long-standing armistice.[S1]
Seoul's position is that Pyongyang laid the mines as part of efforts to strengthen its side of the border. In a Wednesday statement, it pressed North Korea to apologise for the explosion and to stop such fortification activity along the frontier without delay. South Korean Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul had described the blasts on Tuesday as an unambiguous breach of the 1953 armistice that halted active fighting in the Korean War. That accord established the 4km-wide DMZ, a buffer strip that includes the Military Demarcation Line marking the land border dividing the two Koreas.[S1]
Pyongyang Denies Responsibility as Kim Yo Jong Hits Back
Pyongyang has rejected blame for the explosions, dismissing Seoul's allegations as baseless and a sham designed to ratchet up tensions on the peninsula. Kim Yo Jong, the influential sibling of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said South Korea had fabricated the accusations as a form of political and military provocation. She dismissed the idea that North Korean personnel had crossed the frontier to lay the mines, calling it a calculated and premeditated claim meant to pin responsibility for rising tension on North Korea. Her remarks, carried by state media on Wednesday, further cautioned the South to brace for the consequences of its own deception.[S1]
In her statement, Kim brought up a 2015 episode, asserting that South Korea had exploited that event to inflame tensions and was now repeating the same tactic. During 2015, two South Korean soldiers lost limbs to landmines while on patrol in the area. South Korea maintained that North Korean troops had covertly laid those mines close to a South Korean guard post, an allegation Pyongyang rejected. Over the decades following the armistice, the DMZ has seen occasional skirmishes and mine detonations.[S1]
Fraying Ties Raise Risk of Accidental Escalation
Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have worsened steadily since 2015, heightening the danger of friction whenever such incidents arise. Christopher Green, a senior consultant with Crisis Group, told the BBC that North Korea has been deliberately working to harden the border and sever inter-Korean ties. Consequently, he noted, the two Koreas no longer maintain the same low-level channels of communication they had in 2015. He added that accidental escalation on the Korean Peninsula is always only a few steps away, and that those steps are now fewer than they were in 2015.[S1]
The United Nations Command, which carried out on-site probes of the explosions alongside the South Korean military, stated that it would address the breach of the 1953 armistice using the established Armistice mechanisms. It added that it stays dedicated to upholding and enforcing the Armistice Agreement and to carrying out its duties of safeguarding stability and averting escalation on the Korean Peninsula.[S1]
