United Nations Command

An appeals court overturns a lower court ruling and acquits ex-president Yoon Sun-il of accepting an illegal political donation in connection with three public opinion polls.

And, South Korea plans to conduct a joint investigation with the UN Command regarding North Korea's border fortification work and inform Pyongyang that it is violating the armistice agreement.

This is KBS World Radio News.

I'm Daniel Choi.

The lower court found Yoon guilty in connection with 14 polls that Myung had delivered to the couple directly and sentenced the former president to two years in prison while sentencing Myung to a year and a half but found that the couple could not be held responsible for the remaining 44 polls.

South Korea plans to conduct a joint investigation with the United Nations Command regarding North Korea's border fortification work and inform Pyongyang that it's infringing upon the military demarcation line in violation of the Korean War Armistice Agreement.

In a report submitted to the National Assembly ahead of an audit on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said it will coordinate a response with the UN Command against any attempt by the North to encroach on the buffer zone established under the armistice.

The ministry also said it will urge the North to stop the violations and restore the border area to its former state.

The blasts on September 21st injured three South Korean military officers on a survey mission.

The South Korean military investigated, along with the United Nations Command.

The report says the blasts were about 10 meters south of the military demarcation line separating the two Koreas.

The probe determined the devices were North Korean mines that could've been planted more than a year earlier and weren't carried there by flooding.

The South Korean military has concluded that resin-caused anti-personnel mines planted south of the military demarcation line by North Korea were the cause of a blast inside the demilitarized zone on September 21 that injured three South Korean soldiers.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-won said at a press briefing Monday that the conclusion was the result of a joint investigation with the United Nations Command, including GPS data showing that the blast sites were south of the military demarcation line, scientific evidence identifying the mines as North Korean anti-personnel mines, and indications that they had been deliberately planted rather than displaced.

Based on the joint survey with the UNC and scientific grounds, we have concluded that South Korean personnel who were conducting a normal DMZ operation south of the MDL suffered serious injuries because of resin-cased anti-personnel mines the North had planted as part of the regime's border fortification work.

At around 12.51 p.m. today, the military removed the remaining North Korean mines south of the demarcation line that were recognized as the source of the blasts and which the UNC deemed to be in violation of the armistice

The two explosions near the military demarcation line in the western demilitarized zone wounded three South Korean soldiers.

The United Nations Command is a US-led force that oversees the armistice.

It said a joint investigation with Seoul's military identified a North Korean anti-personnel mine on the South Korean side of the line.

It determined that an armistice violation occurred.