[Exclusive] Government to Send Letter to UN Security Council President on 'DMZ Landmine' Incident, Stepping Up Response a Month Later

North Korea's "blame-the-victim" threats met with a campaign to sway international opinion
Unification Ministry: "Actions that violate the Armistice Agreement and heighten the risk of tension and conflict must stop immediately"

The government plans to send a letter to the president of the United Nations (UN) Security Council concerning the landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on September 21. The move comes about a month after the incident. North Korean mines seriously injured three South Korean soldiers, yet Pyongyang has responded by shifting the blame. The government’s move is seen as an effort to step up its diplomatic response.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. Yonhap News.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 22, the government has decided to send a letter, in the name of South Korea’s ambassador to the UN, to the country holding the Security Council presidency in the near future. The letter is expected to express regret and point out that the landmine explosion was a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement. Relevant ministries are still reviewing the specific wording.

The letter to the Security Council president is significant because it will inform the international community of North Korea’s violations of the Armistice Agreement. It is also a preliminary step toward gradually escalating the response, including pursuing a presidential statement or resolution through Security Council discussions, should North Korea carry out further provocations. In 2015, when the wooden-box landmine incident occurred, the government sent a letter to the Security Council 14 days later.

Since the latest DMZ landmine explosion, North Korea has instead been issuing threatening remarks day after day. In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on October 22, Kim Yo Jong, director of the General Affairs Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, denounced the South, calling it “an utterly shameless, ignorant, irrational, illogical moron” that “caused a suspicious incident, shed blood, and then shifted the blame to others, while brazenly interfering even in the construction of a fence around someone else’s property.” She also threatened that “if you keep whining and resorting to fault-finding and groundless claims, the current ruling authorities will face the most disastrous and distressing situation.” On October 20, she personally visited sites where fortification work was underway near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), accompanied by key commanders of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, including Pak Jong Chon, an adviser to the Ministry of National Defense and an artillery expert. North Korea has announced that it will resume anti-South loudspeaker broadcasts throughout the border region this month. However, neither the statement nor the report of the visit appeared in Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper read by North Korean residents.

Regarding Kim’s statement, the Ministry of Unification said, “Actions that violate the Armistice Agreement near the Military Demarcation Line and heighten tensions and the risk of clashes must stop immediately.” It added, “Just over a year ago, we experienced unbearable hardship as both sides broadcast loudspeaker messages at each other. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Im Eulchul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, called North Korea’s resumption of anti-South loudspeaker broadcasts “a self-defeating move.” He expressed concern that “the noise broadcasts could lead to auditory and visual misperceptions among military personnel on both sides responsible for surveillance and security. If North Korea accidentally overreacts to legitimate warning shots by our military, the situation could escalate into a high-intensity military clash.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.