US-led UN Command assesses North Korean mine south of MDL was deliberately placed

The US-led United Nations Command assessed that a North Korean mine found south of the Military Demarcation Line had been deliberately placed there and installed more than 12 months ago, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.

Army Lt. Gen. Kwon Dae-won, vice chair of the JCS, announced the findings during a briefing on the final investigation into the Sept. 21 mine explosions in the Demilitarized Zone that injured three South Korean military personnel.

The JCS also said it removed the North Korean minefield south of the MDL at around 12:51 p.m. Monday, urging North Korea to halt its border fortification activities near the MDL.

The UNC had earlier said investigators found a North Korean anti-personnel mine south of the MDL and determined that an Armistice Agreement violation had occurred.

Speculation that North Korean forces had been planting mines south of the MDL was first raised by People Power Party lawmaker Rep. Yu Yong-weon during the interpellation session earlier in September.

A Sept. 28 briefing by the Defense Ministry indicated that it first learned about a "terrain change" in the second half of last year.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea's Rep. Kim Byung-joo claimed on Sept. 29 that North Korea's mines were likely placed "more than a year before."

Kim added this was part of Pyongyang's mine-laying operations in line with border fortification efforts that begain in April 2024, when former President Yoon Suk Yeol was in power. Lee Jae Myung was inaugurated on June 4, 2025.