North Korea accuses Seoul of fabricating landmine blast

North Korea has sent an official letter to the United Nations Security Council, firmly rejecting South Korea’s accusations over a landmine explosion in the inter-Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the UN claimed in a document sent to the Security Council president that Seoul fabricated the September 21 incident.

The Pyongyang administration said in the letter that South Korea had taken this step to delay and obstruct North Korea’s fortification and defensive-line construction work along its southern border.

The document to the UN Security Council warned: “If South Korea continues its attempts to violate North Korea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity despite our warnings, it will bear full responsibility for the resulting military and political consequences.”

The security situation on the Korean Peninsula has grown sharply more complex in recent weeks. After three South Korean soldiers were seriously injured in an anti-personnel mine explosion in the DMZ on September 21, Seoul directly blamed Pyongyang for the incident. North Korea denied responsibility and said it would respond “immediately and mercilessly” if its troops came under fire along the line of contact.

In an official statement on October 19, Kim Yo-jong, deputy department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, claimed that the actions of “South Korean military gangsters” along the southern border were creating serious security risks. Kim said North Korea was considering increasing the number of tactical strike assets along the border and restoring propaganda loudspeakers.

Meanwhile, Jin Yong-sun, chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, directly instructed commanders during a visit to frontline military units to respond in the strongest and most decisive manner to any possible new provocations by the enemy.