Posted on 08/09/2015 6:58:25 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
N. Korea behind recent mine explosion in DMZ: Defense Ministry
2015/08/10 10:30
SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is believed to have masterminded the bloody explosion of land mines in the demilitarized zone last week, the Defense Ministry said Monday, in the latest military provocation by the North, happening just weeks before a scheduled joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S.
The mine blasts took place on the morning of Aug. 4 on the southern side of the DMZ near the city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, while eight South Korean Army troops carried out a regular scouting mission there. The explosion severed the legs of two staff sergeants.
North Korean wooden-box mines were the cause of the blast, said Army Brig. Gen. Ahn Young-ho, who headed a joint probe into the incident, referring to mine debris found in the site.
"It is clear the enemy has deliberately laid the mines with an intention to inflict harm on our operational forces," Ahn said. "The explosives are clearly wooden-box mines that the North Korean army is using."
The design and types of the wood cases, three spring parts and the Trinitrotoluene explosive material, or TNT, found at the explosion site were cited as evidence supporting the conclusion.
The North Korean plot may be intended to derail the upcoming Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), the annual war simulation exercise scheduled to take place next week between South Korea and the U.S. to prepare for a potential incursion by North Korea, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
"It seems to be aimed at interrupting the scheduled implementation of UFG by obscuring who did the provocation and spurring discord inside South Korea over it," the JCS official said.
The Paju border area is also where the two Koreas exchanged machine gun rounds last October after South Korean activists launched anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into the North Korean side.
He likened the latest blast to the North's deadly torpedoing of the South Korean Navy Corvette Cheonan in March 2010. North Korea has not yet accepted responsibility for the torpedo attack, despite much evidence showing otherwise.
A couple of North Korean soldiers may have secretly crossed the military demarcation line and come 440 meters further south to bury the mines around a South Korea Army-guarded gate that opens to the DMZ, possibly between July 26 and Aug. 1, the Army brigade general said.
The DMZ is a four kilometer-wide arms-free buffer running between the two countries which have been under a ceasefire since the 1950-53 Korean War. In actuality, the width is less than 4 km as the countries' troops moved closer to the demarcation line which bisects the DMZ as part of tighter vigilance operations.
The accident site had previously been a mine-free zone where South Korean troops conduct regular search missions and there's no possibility of the North Korean mines being washed up there, the army official said, backing up the conclusion of the probe.
The suspected mine laying by North Koreans, however, was not detected during the South Korean military's regular surveillance operations possibly due to heavy fog seen in the area recently as well as heavy forest blocking the view during the summer, he said.
Following the explosion, the JCS has ordered heightened war-readiness positions among the servicemen and issued caution over the possibility of more mines being buried than the three that went off last week, military sources said.
In his capacity as the commander of the United Nations Command, the U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti has also endorsed the recent conclusion during a recent telephone call with JCS Chairman Adm. Choi Yoon-hee, the sources said.
It was the first explosion by North Korea-laid explosives within the heavily-fortified DMZ since similar incidents took place in the mid-1960s, possibly a violation of the armistice which prohibits military action in the buffer zone.
P!
bump
Do you suppose this might qualify as a Captain Obvious moment? 😱
Active Duty ping.
I suppose he’ll be receiving a stern letter
“You’re bweaking my bawls, Hans, you’re bweaking my bawls.”
This kind of stuff happens a lot it seems
I wonder if Han Blix still around LOL!
Wooden box mines—some Russian influence there.
After all, NK regime is a beast created by Soviets. The style of propaganda, music and military parade is classic Soviet.
I’d hate to be one of those Staff Sergeants now missing a leg. A new war will not be the result. A couple of legs are not worth it. A couple of well placed sniper shots would be a good tit for tat.
Strange. My son just returned from South Korean war games.
A better tit for tat would be to send a Tomahawk missile into the USS Pueblo.
Further provocation. Nasty.
Near Munsan??
We should assassinate the Communist Gerber Baby and let norkland descend into bloody power struggles.
But our leadership doesn’t have the testicular fortitude for that.
No, Brak only assassinates reporters and American citizens.
Accident?
No. Defense Ministry believes that NK soldiers infiltrated under a cover of dense fog and planted mines right next to a entrance door in the barbed wire fence through which SK patrols go through.
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