Defense minister vows 'corresponding measures' if NK land mine confirmed in DMZ blast

South Korea will take corresponding measures if last week’s explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is confirmed to originate from a land mine placed recently by North Korea, Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said Monday.

“Appropriate and corresponding measures will be necessary and we will take them,” Kang told reporters after meeting main opposition People Power Party (PPP) leader Jang Dong-hyeok at the National Assembly.

His remarks came as the accounts given by troops raised the possibility that a North Korean anti-personnel mine was present near the blast site, although the military said neither the type of mine involved nor who planted it had been established.

Brig. Gen. Hwang Ju-bong, director of Operations Division 1 at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said at a regular defense ministry briefing on Monday that some soldiers reported seeing a wooden box that could have housed an explosive device near the blast site, although others described it differently.

“There was testimony that its shape resembled a wooden box mine but that the material appeared to be plastic,” Hwang said. “Others thought it was a different type.”

Hwang said investigators still needed to determine whether the soldiers were describing the same object and whether it had been buried. Several types of mines are housed in wooden boxes, he added, making it premature to identify the device based on witness accounts alone.

Asked whether he had been briefed on the soldiers’ accounts, Kang stressed that the evidence was not conclusive.

“There are also accounts suggesting it was not a wooden box mine, so it is difficult to identify it at this stage,” he said. “We are conducting a field investigation today and will transparently explain the findings to the public as soon as possible.”

Separately, media reports citing government sources said a preliminary analysis by the National Forensic Service suggested that a North Korean mine caused the blast.

“We have not been officially notified of the results,” Hwang said.

The military has sent clothing, protective gear and other evidence collected from the injured soldiers for forensic examination. Investigators plan to assess those findings alongside physical evidence recovered from the blast site.

The South Korean military and the United Nations Command (UNC) began a joint field investigation Sunday, but were only able to reach an area near the suspected blast point. The site is suspected of containing land mines, and South Korean troops have not routinely entered for decades, requiring investigators to clear a new route as they advance.

The military has not ruled out the possibility that mines laid by South Korean forces decades ago remain in the area. It also said it detected terrain changes there in the second half of last year, but has not established whether those changes were connected to the explosion.

Kang rejected opposition allegations that the military had deliberately delayed the investigation or concealed information about the incident.

“We did not intentionally delay anything or attempt to conceal anything,” he said, explaining that the timing of the field investigation was determined after the UNC, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and units on the ground assessed conditions together.

He said the military would brief the public once the field investigation was completed.

The Sept. 21 explosion occurred as troops from the Army’s 25th Infantry Division were clearing a route for a UNC site inspection near the Military Demarcation Line in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Two officers were seriously injured and another soldier sustained minor injuries.