South Korea’s military said on Tuesday that several North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured by landmines in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas since the North began sending soldiers in for construction work late last year.
The work began in North Korea last November. pause South Korea’s military said it reached an agreement with South Korea in 2018 to cease all hostile activities around the demilitarized zone. South Korea’s military said troops have been sent to the 2.5-mile-wide buffer zone on the North Korean side, and the work includes rebuilding military posts that North Korea dismantled under the agreement.
South Korea’s military said North Korea had persisted with the work despite “large numbers of casualties” from several mine explosions, but gave no further details.
South Korea’s military cited the casualties when it announced that a group of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed into South Korean territory on Tuesday, crossing the Military Demarcation Line, the official border in the demilitarized zone. It was the second such incident this month; the military said about 20 soldiers crossed the Military Demarcation Line on June 9, some carrying small arms and others carrying only construction tools.
The military said South Korea warned it in both attacks and its soldiers withdrew, and it said it did not believe the incursions were deliberate. The border is not always clearly visible; while it is occasionally marked, some are lost due to flooding or lack of maintenance, and the line is particularly easy to miss in the summer when vegetation is dense, officials said.
But the incidents add to growing tensions between the two Koreas in recent weeks, with North Korea using balloons Dumping of garbage About South Korea and South Korea’s retaliation Use speakerphone briefly Propaganda vigorously to the North.
The DMZ was established as a buffer zone between the two countries’ armies after the Korean War ended in 1953. The DMZ is littered with mines, many of which were laid during the war. civilian and Soldier Go to the mine there.
During the Cold War, both sides used loudspeakers and balloons to send propaganda across the border, but after the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, both sides agreed to reduce such activities.
However, in recent years, North Korean defectors living in South Korea have been using balloons to send leaflets into North Korea sharply critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his government. This has angered Pyongyang, which uses balloons as one of the factors when deciding whether to allow North Korea to use them. exploded A building on its territory where officials from North and South Korea have met.
South Korea later banned the launch of propaganda balloons into North Korea. But South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned the ban, and defectors have resumed balloon activities in recent weeks. In response, North Korea began launching hundreds of balloons carrying not propaganda materials but ordinary trash such as cigarette butts and compost.
North Korea’s recent activities along the border are part of a broader policy of confrontation with South Korea and its U.S. ally since 2019. Personal diplomacy Kim’s relationship with then-U.S. President Donald Trump broke down. Since then, Kim has abandoned all dialogue with Seoul and Washington, doubled down on building more nuclear missiles, and threatened to use them against South Korea if war breaks out again. In recent years, he has Deepening ties with Russiaallies during the Cold War.
South Korea’s military said North Korea’s construction work inside the DMZ – including building new tank traps and laying new mines – could also be aimed at deterring South Korean soldiers and other North Koreans.Escape to South Korea through the buffer zone.
