North Korea denies planting DMZ mines that injured three South Korean soldiers, threatens retaliation

SEOUL — Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday rejected South Korean findings that North Korea likely planted the mines that injured three South Korean soldiers last week, and threatened to retaliate if the South fires at North Korean fortification troops, the Associated Press reported.

Three officers were hurt in explosions on 21 September near the military demarcation line in the western Demilitarized Zone, with one losing a foot, Channel NewsAsia reported. Her KCNA statement on Tuesday followed South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announcing that North Korean mines caused the blasts, after a joint inspection with the U.S.-led U.N. Command.

Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul told lawmakers Tuesday the mine placement likely violated the armistice and that the South would take “corresponding measures” if a final investigation confirms the North was responsible.

Kim Yo Jong called the assessment a “conspiratorial farce” and accused Seoul of fabricating claims as a pretext for military provocation. She warned: “When a single bullet is hit on our land, they must be prepared for a lot,” adding that “our border units will take immediate and merciless retaliatory action” if the South fires at soldiers on the “permanent project for the southern border”.

Since early 2024, after Kim Jong Un named South Korea the “principal enemy”, Pyongyang has laid mines and built anti-tank barriers to seal off the frontier. The two Koreas remain technically at war, their 1950–53 conflict having ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.