"North Korea Directly Planted Mines South of MDL About a Year Ago"

[Anchor]

The South Korean military has announced the final results of its investigation into the landmine explosion that occurred on the western front on September 21. The military concluded that what injured South Korean soldiers was a North Korean plastic landmine. It also reached a final assessment that the mine had not been washed away by rain, but was directly planted by the North Korean military south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL).

First, Defense Correspondent Kim Tae-hoon reports.

[Reporter]

This is a North Korean resin antipersonnel landmine unveiled today (October 5) by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which was previously discovered in the Imjin River area.

It is made of brown plastic and has a grid pattern.

The JCS stated that during the final on-site inspection on September 29, a resin antipersonnel mine identical to the one found near the Imjin River was identified 1 to 2 meters away from the blast crater in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the western front.

The JCS explained that an analysis by the National Forensic Service also confirmed that the fragments, TNT composition, and colors collected from the incident site, the injured soldiers, and various pieces of equipment matched the landmine found at the Imjin River.

[Kwon Dae-won / Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "We detected TNT, brown foreign materials, and thermosetting resin components, confirming it was a North Korean resin antipersonnel mine. However, to ensure greater accuracy, we conducted a comparative appraisal between the fragments removed from the injured soldiers' bodies and the North Korean resin antipersonnel mine previously retrieved from the Imjin River, and confirmed they were identical..."]

The JCS emphasized that the North Korean military intentionally buried the resin antipersonnel mine at a depth of about 3 centimeters, 10 meters south of the Military Demarcation Line.

[Kwon Dae-won / Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "Considering the distance and row spacing between the mine actually found and the crater of the exploded mine, we concluded that this was not a displaced mine, but a typical North Korean minefield that had been planted."]

He added that the United Nations Command (UNC) shared the same assessment.

The South Korean military and the UNC estimated that the mines were planted about a year ago, reaching a final conclusion that North Korea laid the mines south of the Military Demarcation Line as part of its so-called border fortification efforts.

The JCS urged North Korea to offer a sincere apology even now to the South Korean soldiers injured in the blast and to immediately remove the landmines laid in violation of the Armistice Agreement.

(Video by Cho Chang-hyun | Video Editing by Jeong Seong-hun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.