South Korean Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul urged North Korea to return to negotiations following the discovery of a landmine in the Demilitarized Zone.
The call came after South Korean military officials stated that they had detected a landmine in the border area that was likely linked to North Korea, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.
Speaking about the incident, Kang said that both countries needed to verify each other and urged Pyongyang to sit down at the negotiating table. He stated that he intended to strongly press for dialogue, adding that maintaining direct communication channels between the two militaries was far more important than monitoring the military demarcation line itself.
Kang noted that he planned to pursue effective measures to restore and strengthen inter-Korean communication links.
The Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea remain separated by the Demilitarized Zone, a four-kilometer-wide border buffer strip established along the 38th parallel following the Korean War. Because the three-year conflict concluded with an armistice agreement in 1953 rather than a formal peace treaty, the two neighboring nations remain technically at war. The border area features dense arrays of landmines, razor wire, and military guard posts, making direct communication lines essential to avoid unintended military escalations.
Landmine explosions along the border
The defence minister made his appeal after a series of landmine incidents in the border region. An initial event involved the suspected explosion of two landmines in the Demilitarized Zone, which injured three people, including two South Korean military personnel.
Following that explosion, military search teams discovered a third unexploded landmine in the same sector. South Korean troops later identified a fourth landmine in the area and attributed its presence to North Korea.
Maintaining reliable communication systems has long been a central challenge in managing security on the Korean Peninsula. Emergency hotlines between Seoul and Pyongyang have experienced repeated shutdowns and restorations during past security crises. Yonhap, headquartered in Seoul, functions as South Korea's national news agency, providing coverage of military affairs, foreign policy, and government announcements across the region.
North Korean military warnings
The proposal for talks follows earlier warnings from officials in Pyongyang regarding military cooperation between Seoul and Washington. Kang Chol-su, a department head at the North Korean Institute for the Study of Enemy Affairs, previously warned that South Korea would become a decisive target of collective retaliation.
According to the North Korean official, the warning was issued because the United States intended to turn South Korea into a decisive hub of collective defence.
