South Korea is weighing measures to force North Korea to apologize for a recent mine explosion near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that injured three South Korean soldiers, a Defense Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday, as tensions over the world's most heavily guarded border continue to escalate.
A joint South Korean-United Nations investigation released Monday concluded that two mines that detonated last month in the DMZ had been planted by North Korean forces about a year earlier. The finding prompted Seoul to formally demand an apology from Pyongyang.
"We are not ruling out any options and we have not predetermined anything regarding additional measures," Defense Ministry spokesperson Chung Bin-na told reporters Tuesday when asked whether there were plans to force Pyongyang to apologize. Chung did not detail what actions might be taken.
Seoul has also called on North Korea, a nuclear-armed state, to remove other mines planted south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that runs through the DMZ — the heavily fortified border that has divided the Korean Peninsula since the 1953 armistice.
Pyongyang has denied responsibility for the September 21 explosion. Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, dismissed the demand for an apology as "despicable."
Chung said Seoul is calling on Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table to discuss disagreements over the MDL. According to her, differing views on the border line are among the factors contributing to tensions in the area.
The remarks came a day after South Korean troops carried out a demining operation south of the MDL. Seoul has pledged to continue demining operations in the area if Pyongyang does not remove the remaining explosives. The U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) confirmed that the mine-laying violated the 1953 armistice agreement.
Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul told Yonhap news agency Tuesday that the military's "decisive" response was "unprecedented."
"All responsibility lies with North Korea," Kang told reporters, adding that the armed forces would "respond decisively" to any action threatening national security.
The escalation comes as Pyongyang rejects diplomatic overtures from Seoul. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on October 2 proposed that the two sides jointly survey the MDL, noting that only about 200 of the original 1,292 border markers remain intact and that Seoul and the UNC also disagree on roughly 60 percent of the border's coordinates.
Kim Yo-jong rejected the proposal as a "wild dream," declaring that Pyongyang would determine its sovereign boundary "by force, not by negotiation."
