South Korea demands North apologize for DMZ mine blasts

Three South Korean officers were severely injured with one losing his foot.

Agence France-Presse·30 September 2026, 11:15 pm·1 MIN READ

South Korea demands North apologize for DMZ mine blasts — Photograph courtesy of Jung Yeon-je / AFP

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Three South Korean officers were severely injured in the 21 September explosion inside the DMZ, the heavily mined buffer dividing the two Koreas since their 1953 armistice. One lost his foot.

On 21 September, “South Korean soldiers sustained serious injuries from North Korean landmines while conducting normal search operations south of the Military Demarcation Line,” Kang Hyun-woo, chief director of operations of Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

“This is a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement and undermines the spirit of existing inter-Korean agreements; it must be stopped immediately,” he said, adding “we strongly urge an apology and responsible measures.”

Kang glared into the camera as he read the statement aloud in a raised voice.

Hours earlier, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had denied North Korea was behind the landmine blasts.

South Korea’s assertion is “too low and dirty as befitting the tribes of the ROK,” Kim Yo Jong, said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA, using the South’s formal name, the Republic of Korea.

The United Nations Command said Wednesday a joint investigation with Seoul’s military had “identified an active Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea’s) anti-personnel mine on the ROK side of the Military Demarcation Line.”

“Based on the findings of the investigation, UNC determined that an Armistice Agreement violation occurred,” it added, reiterating what Seoul said a day earlier.

The United Nations Command is a United States-led multinational military force charged with overseeing the armistice agreement that halted fighting in the Korean War and administers the southern side of the DMZ.

Landmine incidents on the DMZ, one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers, have previously heightened tensions between the two Koreas.

After an investigation into the 21 September incident, South Korea’s defense minister Kang Shin-chul said its military “has a range of necessary measures at our disposal, and we will implement them in stages,” without giving details.

The North Korean mines were believed to have been laid as part of Pyongyang’s border fortification work, minister Kang said Tuesday.

The border fortification work has led North Korean soldiers to accidentally cross the land border in the past, according to Seoul’s military.

But Kim Yo Jong said the South was “cooking up” bogus allegations as a pretext for political and military provocation against North Korea, KCNA said.

“Clearly speaking, our soldiers have never crossed the border,” she added.