North Korea said to have planted 960,000 mines near South Korea border

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff have formally briefed the country’s National Assembly on large-scale military fortification work carried out by North Korea along the de facto border on the Korean Peninsula.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing parliamentary sources, Pyongyang has sharply strengthened its military security line along the inter-Korean border since 2024.

South Korean military intelligence estimates that North Korean forces have laid about 960,000 new anti-personnel mines along the Military Demarcation Line.

The report says North Korean troops have been actively installing barbed-wire fences along the contact line, expanding mine-laying operations and deploying heavy anti-tank weapons and engineering fortifications.

According to military experts’ assessments, more than 2 million anti-personnel and anti-tank mines may be present across the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries, including mines laid by South Korea for defensive purposes in previous years. Experts say the situation raises security risks in the region and worsens the humanitarian threat posed by landmines.