Landmine blasts injure North Korean troops laying mines along border, South says

Dozens of North Korean soldiers also briefly crossed the heavily fortified border on Tuesday and retreated after warning shots were fired, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice not a peace treaty, with the demilitarised zone and line of control dividing the peninsula one of the most heavily mined places in the world.

“Dozens of North Korean troops crossed the Military Demarcation Line today … [and] retreated northwards after warning shots” were fired, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.

Several North Korean soldiers had been injured when landmines exploded near the border, Seoul’s military also said on Tuesday without revealing the date.

The North Koreans were working on creating “barren land” and laying mines along the border, an official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, but ended up “suffering multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents during their work”.

Even so, the North’s military “appear to be recklessly pressing ahead with the operations”, the official said.

Since April, North Korea has deployed troops along the front line “to create barren land”, the official said, adding the North was also laying more landmines, reinforcing tactical roads, and adding what appeared to be anti-tank barriers.

“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.

The vast majority of North Koreans who escape the country first go to China before making their way to the South, usually via another country, with only a handful ever managing to cross the DMZ, which is riddled with