Lawmakers scrutinize military's initial response, additional mine-clearing operations

Kang Shin-chul: 'Winning without fighting is the best strategy'

Jeong Dong-young: Soldiers injured by North Korean mines; calls for peaceful coexistence

Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young delivers an institutional report at the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee national audit, held Wednesday at the Inter-Korean Talks Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]
Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young delivers an institutional report at the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee national audit, held Wednesday at the Inter-Korean Talks Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

The National Assembly's National Defense Committee used Wednesday's national audit of the Ministry of National Defense to scrutinize the military's response to a landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone on the western front. North Korea denied responsibility and threatened to respond forcefully if South Korean troops crossed into what it claims as its territory during mine-clearing operations. Preventing a recurrence and managing military tensions emerged as the central issues.

Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul opened the audit by declaring that "winning without fighting is the best strategy," adding that the military would strengthen its self-defense capabilities through the transfer of wartime operational control and use that foundation to reinforce the South Korea-US alliance. "We will become a warrior community that our enemies fear most and our people trust most," he said.

The military had earlier released its final investigation findings, concluding that North Korean troops had planted resin-based anti-personnel mines south of the MDL. At Wednesday's audit, ruling and opposition lawmakers pressed the military on when it first detected signs of the planting, what safety measures were in place during operations, how it responded initially, and what plans exist to clear additional mines.

Beyond questions of accountability for the military's handling of the incident, lawmakers also put the government's broader policy toward North Korea under scrutiny — specifically how it intends to prevent a recurrence while managing tensions in the face of Pyongyang's threats.

At a separate audit of the Ministry of Unification held the same day at the Inter-Korean Talks Building, Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young expressed condolences to soldiers injured by the North Korean mines and said the government must "prepare thoroughly so that such misfortune never happens again." He framed his remarks around peace, saying "the need for efforts toward fundamental peace has become all the more urgent."

Jeong said that "peaceful coexistence means living together even when we think differently," and pledged to pursue follow-up measures to build "inclusive peaceful coexistence based on mutual respect, stable peaceful coexistence where there is no need to fight, and responsible peaceful coexistence that contributes to world peace" on the Korean Peninsula.

Amid the audit proceedings, North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday repeated its claim that the South Korean military's final investigation findings were a "fabrication." It also issued a direct threat targeting South Korean mine-clearing operations, warning that "if those military boots, if those sparks, encroach even 1 millimeter on our territory, the border forces of Korea will take immediate and powerful countermeasures."

Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the statement amounted to a refusal to apologize or voluntarily remove the mines while tacitly accepting South Korea's mine-clearing south of the MDL — in exchange for demanding non-interference in North Korea's own fortification work. However, Hong cautioned that the risk to follow-up mine-clearing operations remains, as the boundaries of the territory North Korea claims are unclear.


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