On September 21, 3 officers from the Army’s 25th Division were injured in an explosion in the western-front Demilitarized Zone.
The incident occurred not while patrolling a familiar passage, but while creating a new search route ahead of an on-site investigation by the United Nations Command.
What the explosive was and who planted it were subjects of investigation at the time, but the operation’s purpose and the accident site need to be considered separately.
3-line summary
1. 3 officers from the 25th Division were injured in the DMZ
2. The incident occurred on September 21 while a search route was being created
3. The type of mine and the party that planted it remain unconfirmed
They were creating a route ahead of the UNC on-site investigation
According to an explanation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the 25th Division requested an on-site investigation from the United Nations Command to verify changes in terrain identified near the Military Demarcation Line on the western front. The operation on September 21 involved creating a search route to allow access to the site ahead of that investigation.
Creating a search route is an operation to secure a safe passage while checking for the risk of explosives such as mines and unexploded ordnance. According to reports by Hankyoreh and Yonhap News TV, the troops were using mine detectors at the time, and after the accident, an emergency helicopter entered the Demilitarized Zone in coordination with the UNC to evacuate the injured.
The accident occurred at approximately 10:50 a.m. in the western-front DMZ under the 25th Division’s jurisdiction. 3 officers were injured, 1 of whom suffered an ankle amputation injury. The 2 injured personnel were urgently transported to the Armed Forces Capital Hospital.
The suspected site of the terrain change and the accident site were not confirmed to be the same
Before the accident, the military had been consulting with the UNC over the possibility that North Korean forces had altered the terrain near the Military Demarcation Line by planting mines and installing fences. However, the Joint Chiefs of Staff explained that the accident site was not the terrain-change site mentioned in the National Assembly. This means that the fact that the operation was intended to investigate an area suspected of having undergone terrain changes does not, by itself, establish that the mine at the explosion site came from that area.
The cause of the explosion had also not been determined at the time. The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that it was an explosion suspected to have been caused by a mine, but said it was an issue requiring investigation whether it was a mine previously planted by the South Korean military, a mine planted by North Korean forces, or a mine that had been lost from the North Korean side. Hankyoreh reported on the 22nd that military authorities would determine the exact location and cause of the explosion after site safety had been secured.
Some political figures and reports raised the possibility that the mine had been planted by North Korean forces. Meanwhile, military authorities stated that they would investigate while keeping all possibilities open. The facts confirmed in this accident are the injuries and the circumstances of the operation, while the type of mine and the party that planted it remain matters requiring separate on-site verification and analysis.
References
Tags #Mine #DMZ #DemilitarizedZone #25thDivision #WesternFront #MilitaryDemarcationLine #MDL #SearchRouteCreation #JointChiefsofStaff #UnitedNationsCommand #MineExplosion #ArmedForcesCapitalHospital