Kim Yo Jong Denies North Korean Mines Injured South Korean Soldiers, Warns of Retaliation
SEOUL, South Korea — The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday rejected South Korea's conclusion that North Korean mines likely caused explosions that injured three South Korean soldiers last week, and she warned that the North would retaliate if the South fires on its troops along the border.
Kim Yo Jong, a senior foreign policy official and one of the most influential figures in Pyongyang, called Seoul's assessment a "conspiratorial farce." She accused South Korea of making unsubstantiated claims to create a pretext for military provocation, according to a statement carried by state media.
The dispute centers on two explosions on Sept. 21 near the military demarcation line in the western section of the Demilitarized Zone. Three South Korean military officers were injured in the blasts, which occurred in a heavily fortified buffer zone that divides the two Koreas.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that a preliminary assessment, made after a joint inspection with the U.S.-led United Nations Command, pointed to North Korean mines. The Joint Chiefs said South Korean and U.N. investigators found another North Korean mine on Tuesday during a follow-up inspection. The U.N. Command said Wednesday it had determined that North Korea violated the armistice agreement that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, and that it was addressing the violation through established mechanisms. It did not provide details.
South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul told lawmakers Tuesday that Seoul would consider unspecified "corresponding measures" if a full investigation confirmed North Korea's responsibility.
Kim Yo Jong dismissed that possibility and portrayed North Korea's border work as a legitimate exercise of sovereignty. She accused the South of escalating tensions by broadcasting warnings and firing warning shots at North Korean troops involved in front-line fortification work. "Our soldiers have never crossed the border," she said.
She added: "When a single bullet is hit on our land, they must be prepared for a lot. If the (South Korean) military gangsters fire at our soldiers carrying on the permanent project for the southern border, not warning shots, our border units will take immediate and merciless retaliatory action."
The explosions took place about 10 meters south of the military demarcation line during an operation to establish a patrol route through a densely vegetated area that had rarely been visited for decades. The route was intended to allow future inspections with the U.N. Command after South Korea detected "terrain changes" last year that may have resulted from North Korean minelaying.
Kwon Dae-won, vice chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was a "very high possibility" that North Korean mines caused the explosions. He noted that there was no record of South Korean or allied forces laying mines in the area, and said blast marks, forensic analysis of explosive substances and what appeared to be a third North Korean mine at the scene all pointed to the North. Kang said investigators found a possible fourth mine during Tuesday's follow-up inspection.
The DMZ, which is 248 kilometers (155 miles) long and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide, is one of the world's most heavily fortified borders. An estimated 2 million mines are buried in and around the zone, which is also guarded by barbed-wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides. The zone is a legacy of the Korean War, which ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
The latest explosions came more than a decade after South Korea blamed the North for land mine blasts that maimed two South Korean soldiers and sharply raised tensions between the countries in August 2015. The Koreas then traded threats, staged weapons demonstrations and resumed border propaganda broadcasts before days of marathon talks pulled them back from the brink. North Korea issued a vague expression of regret over the soldiers' injuries but never clearly accepted responsibility.
The explosions came as South Korea's liberal government sought to help revive diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington as part of broader efforts to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Any confirmed North Korean role in the injuries could complicate that push and raise the risk of a border miscalculation. With both militaries operating in one of the world's most densely mined and closely watched border areas, even a limited exchange of fire could quickly escalate.
Since early 2024, North Korea has taken an increasingly hard-line stance toward South Korea, declaring its neighbor a permanent enemy and abandoning the concept of shared statehood in favor of a hostile "two-state" system. The North has rejected U.S. calls to revive diplomacy that collapsed in 2019, insisting that Washington must first drop its demand for the North's denuclearization as a precondition for talks.