Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff comforts soldiers injured by 'DMZ land mines'... “I will never forget your dedication”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Cheol-seon = The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that Chairman Jin Young-seung of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visited the Armed Forces Capital Hospital on the 3rd and consoled soldiers who were seriously injured by a North Korean landmine explosion during an operation in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) last September.

Chairman Jin met directly with the injured soldiers and their families and emphasized, "We will not forget their valuable dedication and sacrifice for the country," and added, "We will carefully look into related measures so that we can focus only on treatment and recovery."

The injured soldiers were South Korean soldiers who were deployed to the DMZ search route pioneering operation on September 21, and suffered serious injuries to their ankles and other areas due to the explosion of a North Korean anti-personnel mine buried south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL).

On this day, Chairman Jin visited the Air Operations Unit under the Army Aviation Command in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, and inspected the deployment readiness of the military medical evacuation helicopter 'Medion' (KUH-1M). Medion is a helicopter that was deployed to the DMZ at the time of a land mine explosion and evacuated injured soldiers.

Chairman Jin asked, “Maintain Medion’s constant dispatch readiness to secure the golden hour to save the lives of citizens and soldiers through prompt first aid and air evacuation in case an emergency patient occurs in the front or rear islands.”

Chairman Jin received a report on the aviation operation posture of the attack and mobile helicopter units and also inspected preparations for winter operations.

He emphasized, “We must suppress enemy provocations with superior mobility and firepower that overwhelms the enemy,” and “We must strengthen our firm response posture in preparation for drone and unmanned aerial vehicle threats, and strengthen our operational capabilities by deploying major attack and mobile helicopters.”

Chairman Jin mentioned that we have recently entered a forest fire caution period in the fall season and emphasized the need to immediately provide military firefighting helicopters from the beginning of a forest fire to prevent it from spreading into a large forest fire.