North Korea warns of 'immediate, powerful' response if South violates 'even a millimeter' of territory
Statement by North Korea's foreign ministry comes a day after South Korea's military cleared a minefield near the inter-Korean border
A warning for land mines hangs inside the civilian control zone near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi, on Sept. 30. The South Korean military and the United Nations Command announced that day that the recent mine explosions in the DMZ constituted a North Korean violation of the 1950-53 Korean War Armistice Agreement.
YONHAP
North Korea threatened Tuesday to retaliate against any incursion into its territory, a day after the South Korean military destroyed a North Korean minefield south of the military demarcation line (MDL).
"If a jackboot or a spark of fire from [South Korea] goes even a millimeter beyond the border to violate our territory, the border guard forces of [North Korea] will take an immediate and powerful counteraction," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a press statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday afternoon.
The North's Foreign Ministry also dismissed the South Korean military's findings on the Sept. 21 mine blast in the demilitarized zone as a fabrication.
"This is no more than a poor trick of the [South Korean] military to shift the blame for its own accident onto us," North's ministry said.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Monday that a probe conducted with the United Nations Command had concluded that North Korean troops deliberately planted the antipersonnel mines behind a Sept. 21 blast in the demilitarized zone that injured three South Korean soldiers.
The South Korean military cleared a minefield south of the MDL on Monday.
"We do not care about them trying to remove the mines irrelevant to us, and we have no reason to pay heed to such farce of [South Korea]," the ministry said.
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, twice dismissed the military's interim findings last week as a “farce” staged by Seoul.
Update, Oct. 6: More quotes from North Korea's foreign ministry added.
BY JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
