The Koreas | Security | East Asia

Mine Blast Tests South Korean Engagement Policy as Pyongyang Rejects Any Contact

North Korea has denied planting the mines and refused talks on the boundary line. 

An old sign denotes the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating North Korea and South Korea.

On September 21, two mines exploded inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides North and South Korea. Three South Korean soldiers were injured in the blast, two of which suffered serious injuries. 

Two weeks later, on October 5, the South Korean military concluded that the explosion was caused by a mine North Korea had buried south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that serves as a de facto border.

“Based on the results of the joint investigation with the United Nations Command (UNC) and scientific evidence, we have made a final determination that our service members, who were carrying out normal DMZ operations south of the MDL, were seriously injured by a plastic antipersonnel mine that North Korea planted south of the MDL under the pretext of so-called border fortification work,” Kwon Dae-won, deputy chief of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said during the military’s press conference on Monday. Both the UNC and the South Korean military assessed that the mines had been buried for at least 12 months. 

Along with Kwon’s briefing, the military also said that it had launched an operation to remove the North Korean mines buried around the explosion site by detonating them. It also urged North Korea to offer a sincere apology to the injured service members and to remove the mines it installed in violation of the Armistice Agreement. 

However, Pyongyang already rejected these findings and then refused an offer of talks on the border when Seoul released its initial assessment on the cause of the land mine explosion days ago. The dispute now places the engagement policy of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung under direct strain.

To understand the issue, it helps to begin with the geography of the border. The MDL separates the two Koreas, and the DMZ extends for two kilometers on either side of it. The Armistice Agreement forbids hostile acts inside the DMZ and bars any crossing of the MDL without permission from the Military Armistice Commission. The U.S.-led UNC holds the authority to judge violations of the armistice.

The Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) and Military Demarcation Line (MDL) between North and South Korea. Map via Wikimedia Commons.

Nevertheless, the line has grown difficult to read on the ground. Only around 200 of the 1,292 signs placed along it in 1953 remain intact. Seoul’s Defense Ministry has acknowledged that the baselines of the UNC and the South Korean military differ across roughly 60 percent of the border coordinates.

The September 21 explosions occurred during an operation to clear a path for a joint inspection with the UNC. The inspection was meant to examine terrain changes near the MDL, which military officials suspected were signs of mine-laying by North Korea. The blast site lay about 10 meters south of the line.

On September 28, the South’s JCS assessed a very high possibility that North Korean mines caused the explosions. Forensic analysis detected traces of trinitrotoluene and a brown synthetic material consistent with North Korean plastic antipersonnel mines. Next, investigators found another unexploded North Korean mine near the site. As a result, the South Korean military believes the area held at least four mines.

In addition, South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul told lawmakers on September 29 that Pyongyang appeared to have planted mines at several locations south of the MDL.

On September 30, Lt. Gen. Kang Hyun-woo of the JCS demanded an apology and responsible measures from North Korea, and he urged Pyongyang to halt its border fortification. Meanwhile, the UNC reported that investigators had identified an active North Korean mine south of the line. The command added that it was addressing the violation through established armistice mechanisms. For now, the military has said that it will announce the final results of its joint investigation at a later date.

North Korea answered with a flat denial from Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North’s autocratic leader Kim Jong Un and the main voice on inter-Korean relations. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), one of the North’s key state-controlled media, carried her statement on September 30. 

“The incident is a clear farce reminiscent of the ‘wooden-box mine incident’ which disturbed the world more than ten years ago, in consideration of the time and method of provocation,” Kim said in her statement. “Clearly speaking, our soldiers have never crossed the border.”

On October 2, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young proposed that the two Koreas should meet to confirm and survey the MDL again. In his view, the fading visibility of the line was a primary factor behind the blast. While Chung said that demanding an apology from North Korea is natural, he opposed resuming loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North as a dangerous step.

Pyongyang replied the same day. Kim Yo Jong rebuffed Chung’s proposal as a “wild dream and unilateral jargon.” 

Her statement then turned to the border line itself. “It is the fixed stand of the DPRK government to define the borderline, our........

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