SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean soldiers have been installing landmines and barriers and creating wasteland along the front line for months despite accidents, South Korea’s military said on Wednesday.
North Korea’s military has continued its work forcibly despite multiple casualties caused by some 10 accidents involving landmine explosions and heat illness, according to a statement provided by the defence ministry citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
Female soldiers were also deployed for the work in some areas, the ministry added.
In a meeting held on the same day on North Korea’s “provocations,” South Korea’s Defence Minister Shin Won-sik said the military faces a “complex crisis” further complicated by unpredictable natural disasters, according to a separate statement released by the ministry.
Heavy rain battered Seoul and surrounding areas on Wednesday with downpours expected for North Korea, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.
South Korea’s military was preparing to respond to the possibility of surprise dam water releases by the North during heavy rain and landmines being washed away, the statement read.
It was also preparing for the possibility of North Korean soldiers accidentally defecting amid poor working conditions, as well as crossing the Military Demarcation Line running through the middle of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) while working, the statement added.
Last month, South Korea’s military fired warning shots after several North Korean soldiers crossed the border then retreated after the shots were fired.
Although deadly clashes have occasionally occurred over the decades since open fighting between the countries stopped at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War, the recent incidents mark a rare uptick in activity close to the demarcation line.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Michael Perry)
