North Korea has planted an estimated 960,000 land mines in the Demilitarized Zone since 2024 as part of a campaign to fortify its border with South Korea, according to military data disclosed Friday.
The South Korean military reported to the National Assembly that North Korea had laid approximately 960,000 mines along the DMZ since 2024, according to multiple lawmakers' offices affiliated with the parliamentary intelligence and defense committees.
Experts previously estimated that around 2 million land mines were buried throughout the DMZ, including those planted by South Korean forces.
But Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also cited the figure of 2 million during a parliamentary audit on Oct. 7.
North Korea stepped up its fortification campaign in April 2024 after redefining inter-Korean relations as those between "two hostile states."
Alongside the deployment of land mines, North Korean troops have been clearing vegetation, constructing barriers, building tactical roads and installing barbed-wire fences along the border. Pyongyang has also severed road and railway connections linking the two Koreas, including those along the Gyeongui and Donghae corridors.
On Sept. 21, a South Korean soldier was seriously injured when a North Korean mine exploded south of the MDL, underscoring the risks posed by the extensive mine-laying activities.
Military tensions have also intensified as North Korean troops carrying out the fortification work have repeatedly crossed the MDL, prompting South Korean forces to issue warnings and fire warning shots.
Pyongyang has protested Seoul's responses, claiming that the warning shots threaten the safety of its troops.
On Thursday, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, renewed her criticism of South Korea's warning shots in response to border crossings by North Korean soldiers.
She said new countermeasures had been placed on standby along the entire border and that loudspeakers directed toward South Korea would also be put on standby within days, signaling the possibility of renewed propaganda broadcasts across the border.
cheesuk@heraldcorp.com