North Korea accuses South Korea of misrepresenting a landmine explosion.
The blast near the DMZ injured three South Korean soldiers.
Pyongyang defends its border fortifications as Seoul proposes military talks.
North Korea has written a letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) accusing Seoul of fabricating the truth behind the landmine explosion that injured three soldiers of South Korea.
North Korea’s permanent representative to the UN wrote to the UN Security Council on Sunday, accusing South Korea of wrongly blaming Pyongyang for the disputed “mine explosion incident”.
The letter warned that any violation of North Korea’s sovereignty could prompt the country to take self-defence measures, according to Al Jazeera.
On September 21, two South Korean soldiers were seriously injured and another sustained minor injuries in an explosion near the Military Demarcation Line in Paju. The blast happened as troops were returning from an operation to clear a route inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ).
The UN Command, responsible for overseeing the DMZ, said the placement of a North Korean mine across the border breached the armistice agreement.
North Korea’s UN representative accused South Korea of using the landmine incident to falsely portray Pyongyang’s actions as a “military invasion”. The letter described Seoul’s allegations as a “farce to evade the responsibility for the ever-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula”.
North Korea Justifies Border Fortification
The letter also defended North Korea’s efforts to strengthen its border, calling them a “legitimate and just exercise of its sovereignty” in line with the UN Charter. It accused South Korea of violating the Charter by firing warning shots at soldiers in the DMZ.
South Korea says its troops fire warning shots when North Korean soldiers cross the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) in the DMZ, to push them back across the border. In recent years, North Korean personnel have been building tactical roads and fences near the line.
According to Yonhap, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Monday that Pyongyang’s letter was intended to “justify its border fortification work” and act as a “countermeasure” to Seoul’s communication to the UN.
A few days before Pyongyang sent its letter to the UN, South Korea’s Defence Ministry proposed holding military talks with North Korea to “mutually confirm the precise location” of their shared border and prevent accidental clashes.
