South Korea's Lee Urges North to Restore Trust After DMZ Mine Blast

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called on North Korea to rebuild trust and return to dialogue, a day after Seoul blamed Pyongyang for a landmine blast in the Demilitarized Zone that wounded three South Korean soldiers.

"I hope that the North joins us now on the path of restoring trust and resuming dialogue, following a long interruption," Lee said on Thursday in a speech marking the country's 78th Armed Forces Day at the military headquarters in Gyeryongdae, Reuters and Yonhap reported.

"My administration will consistently pursue practical measures to reduce military tensions between the two Koreas," he said.

Lee's message to Pyongyang

Lee struck a conciliatory tone despite the dispute over the blast. "The knots in inter-Korean relations are extremely complex, but we will steadily, patiently strive to untie them, one by one," he said, according to Yonhap.

He said that "the surest form of security is one that renders conflict unnecessary, in other words, one that creates peace," and that trust "begins to take root, little by little, when words are matched by actions."

Lee said his heart "remains heavy" for the soldiers wounded in what he called an "unfortunate accident" in the DMZ, Yonhap reported.

At the same time, he pledged to strengthen what he called self-reliant defence, saying South Korea would acquire domestically built nuclear-powered submarines by the mid-2030s and complete the transfer of wartime operational control of its forces from the United States, according to Yonhap.

What happened in the DMZ

The explosions took place on 21 September during an operation to clear a path for a joint inspection with the United Nations Command, which oversees the 1953 armistice. Two mines exploded and a third was found by soldiers as they withdrew, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to AFP. One soldier lost a foot, AFP reported.

A fourth mine was found during a joint inspection with the UN Command on Tuesday, Yonhap reported. The military said preliminary forensic analysis found traces of TNT on fragments from the scene, consistent with North Korean anti-personnel mines that use plastic resin casings.

Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday: "This is a clear violation of the armistice agreement, and since North Korea bears responsibility, we will take corresponding measures," AFP reported.

On Wednesday the Joint Chiefs of Staff formally blamed the North. "This constitutes a blatant violation of the Armistice Agreement and undermines the spirit of existing inter-Korean agreements and must be halted immediately," said Lt Gen Kang Hyun-woo, the JCS chief director of operations. "We strongly demand an apology and responsible measures from the North."

The UN Command said in a statement: "UNC determined that an Armistice Agreement violation occurred. UNC is addressing the violation through established Armistice mechanisms." Yonhap reported that the command appeared to base its finding on the active mine found on the southern side of the Military Demarcation Line during Tuesday's inspection, rather than on the blast itself.

North Korea denies involvement

Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, rejected Seoul's findings in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. She called the claims a "conspiratorial farce being staged by the ROK military gangsters", using the initials of South Korea's official name, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

She defended Pyongyang's work along the border as a "thorough exercise of sovereignty unrelated with any military purpose" and warned of "immediate and merciless" retaliation if South Korean troops fire on North Korean soldiers working there.

Since 2024, when Kim Jong Un designated South Korea as the North's "principal enemy", North Korean troops have laid mines and built anti-tank barriers along the frontier, AFP reported. Seoul suspects North Korean soldiers have crossed the border to plant mines on its side, which would breach the armistice, according to Yonhap.

A familiar pattern

The incident echoes a 2015 landmine blast in which two South Korean soldiers were seriously wounded. Seoul concluded then that North Korean troops had crossed the demarcation line to plant the mines, an accusation Pyongyang denied, and South Korea resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, AFP reported.

Kang, the defence minister, said the military had "a range of necessary measures at our disposal" and would implement them in stages, without giving details. The two Koreas remain technically at war, as the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.