North Korea has laid about 960,000 land mines along its border with South Korea since 2024

Mine count along the border

South Korean lawmakers said on Friday, 23 October, citing army estimates, that North Korean forces have laid about 960,000 land mines along the border since 2024. The figures were reported by the Yonhap news agency, which said they came from members of the National Assembly's defence and intelligence committees. Other reports put the total number of mines in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at around two million, a count that includes mines planted by the South Korean military. Yonhap, citing expert estimates, said the total exceeds 2 million and that those estimates also include South Korean mines. According to the lawmakers, half of all the mines in the zone were laid within the past two years. The DMZ is a strip of land roughly four kilometres wide and more than 200 kilometres long that runs along the demarcation line separating the two states.

Fortifying the border under Kim Jong Un

Since spring 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pushed a sweeping buildup of border defences. Reports say he ordered all historic road and rail links across the border blown up. Besides mines, North Korean troops have installed barriers and extra barbed-wire fences along the military demarcation line (MDL), which runs inside the DMZ. South Korean forces respond to this activity near the line with broadcast messages and warning shots. Kim had called South Korea the 'main enemy' at the end of 2023, the first time he moved away from the reunification goal that Pyongyang had pursued since its founding in 1948. North Korea has since removed all references to reunification from its constitution.

Explosion and Pyongyang's response

On 21 September, an explosion caused by a North Korean landmine injured three South Korean soldiers, some of them seriously. Seoul's investigation found that the blast came from North Korean anti-personnel mines. Pyongyang rejected responsibility and accused South Korea of fabricating the investigation. It also threatened to resume propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers placed along the border and to deploy tactical weapons there. The incident raised the risk of further clashes along the border, according to the reports.

Historical background of the DMZ

The DMZ was established on 27 July 1953 under the Panmunjom agreement that halted fighting in the 1950 to 1953 Korean War. The United Nations Command oversees the zone. The Korean War ended with an armistice, and the two Koreas have never signed a peace treaty. The peninsula has remained divided since then into a communist north and a democratic south. Kim's shift away from reunification therefore changes a long-standing policy goal of the North.