S. Korea seeks to formally cite N. Korea for armistice violation following DMZ blast: defense ministry

South Korea is seeking to formally declare North Korea's recent border activities as a violation of the Armistice Agreement following a joint investigation with the U.N. Command (UNC), the defense ministry said Wednesday.

The move comes as Seoul is weighing countermeasures after concluding that land mines deliberately planted by North Korea on the South's side of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) were the cause of the Sept. 21 blast that left three South Korean soldiers wounded, two of them seriously.

North Korea's apparent border intrusion and mine-laying activities south of the MDL clearly constitute violations of the ceasefire agreement that halted the 1950-53 Korean War, Seoul said earlier.

"Following a joint investigation with the UNC into North Korea's MDL incursions, we plan to formalize its armistice violations and strongly demand an immediate halt to border breaches and to restore the DMZ to its original state," the ministry said in a document submitted to lawmakers ahead of an annual parliamentary audit.

"Concurrently, we are pushing for inter-Korean military talks to prevent future accidental clashes and discuss reopening communication hotlines and aligning the MDL markers along the DMZ," it said.

The issue of the border line has reemerged since last month's mine blast.

When the armistice agreement was signed in 1953, the UNC and North Korea installed 1,292 marker posts along the MDL to mark the ceasefire line. However, most have deteriorated or been lost over time, leaving only about 200 identifiable markers today.

The South Korean military defines the MDL based on the mapping designated by the U.N. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The UNC uses a different set of coordinates established through its own 2016 MDL project.

North Korea is believed to use its own version of the MDL based on physical markers.

Calls have grown for efforts to reduce the discrepancies in border mapping. The UNC, which has legal jurisdiction on MDL management under the armistice, shares the need for clarifying the MDL baseline and reportedly conveyed its position to Pyongyang in the past.

"We will also pursue coordinated action with the UNC regarding the North's moves to either reduce or dismantle the buffer zone specified in the armistice agreement," the ministry said.

On the transition of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington to Seoul, the ministry renewed its push for a road map to expedite the transfer, including efforts toward the certification of "full operational capability (FOC)."

The ministry noted it plans to consult with Washington to permanently establish a combined special operations component command by the end of this year. The unit is one of six combined component commands the allies plan to set up prior to the OPCON transfer, four of which have already been launched.