South Korea’s military said on Monday it concluded North Korea had planted mines that injured three South Korean soldiers at their heavily fortified border last month, urging the North to apologize and remove other mines. The announcement came days after North Korea denied responsibility for the Sept. 21 blasts and threatened “merciless” retaliation if provoked over the case, per the AP. It followed South Korea’s earlier, preliminary finding that said there was a “very high possibility” that mines buried by North Korea caused the explosions.
On Monday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it reached a final conclusion that mines from the North that were planted just south of the border exploded and injured the three soldiers who were working on creating a patrol route in a densely vegetated area. It cited a joint investigation of the site with the American-led UN Command, forensic analysis of TNT and other substances collected from the South Korean soldiers’ uniforms, and one other North Korean mine discovered days after the blast. “Our military strongly urges North Korea to offer a sincere apology to our injured soldiers and immediately remove the mines that it installed in violation of an armistice agreement” that ended fighting in the Korean War, Lt. Gen. Kwon Dae-won, vice chair of the JCS, said in a televised briefing.
The armistice agreement prohibits both sides from committing any hostile act “within, from, or against” the Demilitarized Zone, a border buffer zone, and bans military or civilian personnel from crossing the military demarcation line without authorization from the armistice commission. South Korea’s military said North Korean soldiers violated the border’s military demarcation line 17 times last year and 50 times in 2026. South Korea responded by firing warning shots.
Kwon said the South Korean military removed a North Korean minefield around the blast site on Monday and will remove others placed south of the border unless North Korea voluntarily gets rid of them. South Korea’s military earlier said it would take unspecified corresponding steps against North Korea if the North is conclusively found responsible for the mine blasts. Senior official Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, last week called the South’s initial assessment on the blasts a “conspiratorial farce” and vowed to take “immediate and merciless retaliatory action” if South Korea opens fire at North Korean soldiers fortifying the border.