[Anchor]

Nine days after a landmine explosion occurred on the western front, North Korea has issued its first official response. Denouncing the incident as South Korea's "clear fabrication," Pyongyang also threatened immediate retaliation if the South Korean military conducts actual firing.

Reporter Kim Hye-young reports first.

[Reporter]

This statement was issued yesterday (September 30) morning by Kim Yo-jong, a department director of North Korea's Workers' Party.

Regarding the landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone on the western front on September 21, she claimed it was "Seoul's self-fabricated farce."

This marks North Korea's first reaction, coming nine days after the incident occurred and two days after the Joint Chiefs of Staff released the results of its interim investigation.

Completely rejecting the South Korean military's interim investigation findings that there was a "very high likelihood of being North Korean landmines," she claimed the incident was staged by our side.

She even brought up the 2015 wooden-box landmine incident—during which North Korea expressed "regret" over injuries to South Korean soldiers—making the unreasonable claim that the South Korean government back then had forcibly linked the incident to North Korea.

Kim Yo-jong also claimed that the North Korean military "has never once crossed the border."

The criteria for the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) perceived by the South Korean military, the UN Command, and North Korea are known to differ somewhat depending on the section, and Pyongyang is effectively using this discrepancy to argue that it did not trespass into the southern sector.

[Lim Eul-chul / Professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies: It appears (North Korea) judges that actively denying its actions is necessary for permanently establishing the border going forward.]

Analysts also note that Pyongyang may be seeking to build a pretext in advance to shift the blame to South Korea should military clashes occur again during its future "border fortification work."

Kim Yo-jong also mentioned North Korea's "retaliatory measures" to counter the "corresponding measures" heralded by the South Korean military.

She asserted that if South Korea fires "actual shots rather than warning shots" toward North Korean troops, there will be "immediate, merciless retaliation."

Kim Yo-jong specifically singled out South Korea's 21st Division on the eastern front—rather than the western front where the incident took place—and added a threat in the statement saying that they "decided to take measures to bolster tactical counterattack means," leaving military authorities to analyze the intent behind the threat.

(Video by Cho Chun-dong, Kim Hyun-sang | Video Editing by Lee Seung-jin | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung)