The South Korean military has warned North Korea of a “harsh” response to a landmine blast that seriously wounded two South Korean soldiers last week in the demilitarized zone.
“North Korea will pay a harsh price proportionate to the provocation that North Korea made,” Maj. Gen. Koo Hong-mo, director of operations of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.
The landmine blast struck the two South Korean soldiers on Tuesday during a patrol in the southern half of the demilitarized zone, the heavily fortified area that has separated the two Koreas for more than 60 years.
One of the soldiers had to have part of each leg amputated, and the other had to have one foot removed at the ankle, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.
Koo demanded that North Korea apologize for planting the landmines and severely punish whoever is responsible. He said North Korean personnel had illegally intruded into South Korea’s side of the demarcation line that runs through the demilitarized zone.
There was no immediate comment on the matter Monday in North Korean state media.
U.S.-led forces condemn truce violations
The U.S.-led United Nations Command in Korea said that its investigation into the explosion found that the North’s Korean People’s Army had breached several parts of the armistice on the Korean Peninsula by planting landmines along a South Korean patrol route in the southern half of the demilitarized zone.
“The United Nations Command condemns these violations of the Armistice Agreement, and will call for a general officer level-dialog with the Korean People’s Army,” the U.N. Command statement said.
The U.N. Command, which monitors the armistice, said that the investigation had found that the wooden box landmines were recently planted, ruling out the possibility that they were old mines that might have been displaced by rain or other elements over the years.
Staff members from South Korea, the United States, New Zealand and Colombia took part in the investigation, the U.N. Command said.
The demilitarized zone has divided North and South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty. As a result, the two countries technically remain at war.
Tension has flared in the past around sensitive points on the two countries’ de facto border, including North Korea’s shelling of an island in 2010 that killed two South Korean marines.
Roughly 28,000 U.S. troops are based in South Korea.