▲ Seen from Ganghwa County, Incheon, on October 22, North Korean soldiers carry out border fortification work, including the construction of tactical roads and wire fences, in the border area of Gaepung County, Hwanghae Province, North Korea.
North Korea's permanent representative to the United Nations sent a letter yesterday (October 25) to the president of the UN Security Council regarding a landmine explosion incident in the Demilitarized Zone, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
KCNA reported this while claiming that South Korea committed a provocative act by shifting blame onto North Korea for the landmine explosion on September 21.
According to KCNA, the letter stated that "the so-called 'landmine explosion incident' is an insidious plot of sabotage by South Korea to denounce, delay, and block our Southern border fortification" and is "nothing more than a staged drama."
It also emphasized that "fortifying the Southern border is a self-defense measure to protect the territorial safety of our state from external threats of aggression, and is a legitimate and rightful exercise of sovereignty that thoroughly conforms to the UN Charter and international law."
The letter continued, "South Korea has not hesitated to carry out extremely reckless provocations, such as opening fire, severely threatening the lives and safety of our soldiers mobilized for the border fortification project," claiming, "This is a grave violation of Article 2, Paragraph 4 of the UN Charter, which stipulates that in international relations, states shall refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of any state."
The letter added that it "reminds that if the Republic of Korea violates our state's territory even by 1 mm or commits direct provocations that harm the safety and lives of our personnel, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has the legitimate right to exercise its right of self-defense as stipulated in Article 51 of the UN Charter."
As a diplomatic measure regarding the explosion of a landmine planted by North Korean forces in the western front of the Demilitarized Zone, the South Korean government sent a letter under the name of its ambassador to the United Nations to the president of the UN Security Council on October 22 local time.
With both Koreas sending separate letters to the president of the UN Security Council regarding the landmine explosion, the two sides have entered a battle for public opinion targeting the international community.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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