Seoul vows to avenge soldiers crippled by mines

Hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides of the border guard the demilitarized zone that bisects the peninsula, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

The mines exploded on the morning of August 4 as eight South Korean soldiers were conducting a routine patrol along the border near the city of Paju. The other soldier lost one leg in a second explosion as he tried to help his wounded colleague to safety, the ministry said.

Later on Monday, as part of its countermeasures, the South Korean military used loudspeakers to blare anti-Pyongyang rhetoric across the border, a defense ministry official said, resuming broadcasts that had been suspended since 2004.

Describing the attack as a “baseless act” and “wanton violation” of non-aggression accords, it urged the North to apologise and punish those responsible.

Seoul said the broadcasts would only be “part” of the response and officials said they would not be drawn on how long the loudspeaker campaign might continue for.

Officers in North Korea have been planning to show the Wonsan-Kumgang Improvement Zone into a middle of worldwide tourism rivaling these of its Chinese language and Japanese neighbors, they usually have been looking for overseas buyers to develop points of interest and infrastructure within the area.

Both the command and the South Korean military ruled out the possibility that the mines were old ones that had drifted from their original placements because of rain or shifting soil.

The 4-km (2.5 mile)-wide DMZ is one of the world’s most protected borders, separating the two Koreas which remain technically at war. And North Koreans must be held to account for the breach of the armistice.

Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea was nearly certain to deny planting the mines, and added that it was hard to deduce any motive for such an operation. The last time the South threatened to turn the loudspeakers back on – in 2010 – the North vowed to shell the units involved.

While North Korea has depleted its stocks of “reactor-grade” plutonium needed to make weapons, the country has plentiful reserves of uranium ore.

According to South Korean investigators, the blast was targeted at undermining U.S. and South Korean joint military exercises that are scheduled for next week, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

Pyongyang in recent months rejected a series of dialogue offers, citing Seoul’s refusal to halt annual military exercises with the United States.