Military Demarcation Line

I'm your host, Dan Jae-woo.

South Korea has proposed military talks with North Korea on clarifying the location of the military demarcation line, attempting to ease inter-Korean tensions.

More on this in news briefing shortly.

And coming up on in-depth news analysis, we'll discuss the recent re-ignition of the debate on whether Korea should implement female conscription.

Then, for Movie Spotlight, we'll cover a pair of films which were recently screened at the 31st Busan International Film Festival, the latest works of Song Il-gon and Hong Sang-soo.

All that and more on today's Create24.

South Korea has proposed military talks with North Korea to clarify the location of the military demarcation line in a bid to ease inter-Korean tensions, which ramped up in September when South Korean soldiers were injured in landmine explosions in the demilitarized zone.

To unpack South Korea's call for talks, as well as some of our other headlines of the day, we have with us in the studio our KBS World News Editor, Gu Hee-jin.

It said South Korea made nearly 1,000 provocative loudspeaker broadcasts and fired many warning shots between October 1st and October 17th.

Seoul says it used loudspeakers and warning shots to stop North Korean troops crossing the military demarcation line and to drive back those who did.

It gave no numbers.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs Chairman Jin Yong-sung ordered the military to respond with firm resolve if North Korea uses measures as a pretext for aggression.

It's not the first time you've seen [chuckles] a North Korean landmine incident, which you might wanna remind people about.

But, but what do you think North Korea is up to, if anything? Because the UNC, the UN Command, um, uh, said that maybe four or more landmines were placed at least 10 meters south of the military demarcation line.

That's a line that neither military's allowed to cross under the armistice.

So it seems to have been, uh, you know, um, deliberately planted again.

On today's episode, we're going to be discussing the landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone that injured three South Korean soldiers and triggered a new dispute over responsibility and intent.

Seoul says investigators found a North Korean anti-personnel mine south of the military demarcation line, while the UN command has determined that an armistice violation has occurred.

But it still remains unclear whether the mine was deliberately placed there to target South Korean troops, and North Korea has denied responsibility.

To discuss what happened, what we actually know, and what comes next, I'm joined today in the studio by NK News correspondent Junha Park.

And so we can rule out South Korean mines.

So that's two of those possibilities already off the table.

We also know that United Nations Command has said that an armistice violation has occurred, which would tell us that the mine was south of the military demarcation line, the boundary between north and south.

Now, the question then is, was it deliberate or was it accident or did it migrate? Now, from my experience and what I've observed and the evidence that's been provided, I'm ready to rule out deliberate attack here.

Kim Yo-jong was sort of shifting the conversation.

First of all, the conversation started off with a denial, saying that North Korea had no responsibility for whatever South Korea was accusing them of, and then delved into a similar but separate incident where North Koreans were crossing the MDL, the military demarcation line, and South Korean forces were firing warning shots in a routine force to make sure that North Koreans don't cross and go back up.

Look, when it comes to Kim Yo-jong and Pyongyang, they're going to say whatever they're going to say.

We can't control any of that.